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THE    LIFE 


MILITARY  SERVICES 


Gen.  fILLIAM  SELBY  HABNEY. 


By  L.  U.  REAVIS, 

Author  of  "Lifeof  Horace  Greeley,"  "Thotightsfor  the  Young  Men  and  Women 

of  America"  "St.  Louis,  the  Future  Great  City  of  the  IVorid,"  several 

Pamphlets  on  the  retnoval  of  the  National  Capital,  etc. 


General  Harney's  life  and  career  cover  a  period  of  most  intense  interest  in 
our  national  life ;  commencing  before  a  steamboat  began  to  navigate  any  of  our 
Western  rivers,  he  has  seen  the  old  bateaux  and  voyageurs  give  place  to  the 
splendid  steamboats  of  the  Mississippi.  He  performed  good  service  in  the 
early  settlement  of  Louisiana,  Florida  and  the  West;  took  a  prominent  part  in 
all  the  Indian  Wars,  as  also  the  Mexican  and  Civil  Wars. — Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman, 


INTROBaCTION  BY  (JEN.  CASSIUS  M.  CLAY, 


SAINT  LOUIS: 

BRYAN,  BRAND  &  CO.,  Publishers. 
i8;8. 


Copyright, 
BRYAN,  BRAND  &  COMPANY. 


B 


TO 

EDWIN  BATHURST  SMITH,  M.  D., 

A  MAN, 

WHOSE    SCHOLART    ATTAIXMEXTS    AKD    PKOFESSIONAL    EMINENCE    HAVE    CONTRI- 
BUTED LARGELY  TO  THE  CHARACTER  AND  ADVANCEMENT  fIF  MEDICAL 
SCIENCE,  BOTH   IN    PRIVATE  AND    PUBLIC  PLACE; 

A    CITIZEN, 

WHOSE  SOCIAL  VIRTUES    AND'EXEMPLARV    LIFE    HAVE    WON    FOR   HIM    PERSONAL 

HONORS  UNUSUAL  TO  MEN,  AND  IN  A  MARKED  DEGREE   EXTENDED   HIS 

INFLUENCE  AND  GIVEN  STRENGTH  AND  CHARACTER  TO  OTHERS 

FAR    BEYOND    THE    LUVIITS    OF    HIS    OWN    HOME; 

A    FRIEJfD, 

WHOSE  DEVOTION  IS  ONLY  EQUALLED  BY  THE  GENEROSITY  OF  HIS  CHARACTER 

AND  WHOSE   LIFE-PRACTICE    HAS    SHED    LUSTRE  UPON   HIS  NAME 

THROUGH  A  LONG  AND  USEFUL  LIFE,  IS 

THIS  VOLUME, 

A  FAITHFUL  RECORD  OF  A  DISTINGUISHED   SOLDIER  AND 
COTEMPOKARY,  RESPECTFULLY   INSCRIBED 


THE  AUTHOR. 


654^538 


TESTIMONIALS  TO  GENERAL  HARNEY. 


From  Cassius  M.  Clay. 

White  Hall,  Ky.,  January  14,  1878. 
L.  U.  REAVIS,  ESQ.: 

My  Dear  Sir: — Your  note  of  January  8th  is  received.  It  seems  propitious 
that  you  connect  the  name  of  your  modern  hero  with  his  hke — Old  Hickory. 
I  am  glad  that  you  honored  yourself  by  doing  justice  to  Gen.  W.  S.  Harney, 
and  that  you  intend  to  bring  out  his  life  for  the  grateful  appreciation  of  his 
countrymen. 

I  had  the  honor  of  being  introduced  to  General  Jackson,  at  the  White  House, 
during  his  Presidency,  and  when  I  saw  General  Harney  during  the  Mexican 
war  I  was  struck  with  like  admiration  for  his  manly  physique.  They  both 
filled  my  ideal  of  the  old  Roman  of  the  best  days  of  that  illustrious  nation.  It 
was  my  good  fortune  to  be  escorted  with  others  from  the  city  of  Mexico  by 
General  Harney,  after  peace  was  made,  and  I  had  a  good  opportunity  to  con- 
verse freely  with  him,  and  to  form  some  idea  of  his  heroic  and  patriotic  char- 
acter. When  I  first  entered  the  city  of  the  Montezumas  as  a  prisoner,  the  rev- 
olution was  going  on  between  the  Santa  Annaists,  who  had  confiscated  the 
property  of  the  Church,  and  the  priests'  party.  It  was  midnight  as  we 
approached  the  romantic  city  of  my  youthful  reading,  mounted  on  the  bouros 
of  the  country,  under  a  strong  military  guard.  The  moon  shone  brightly,  and 
we  rested  under  the  shadows  of  the  ancient  walls  for  orders  to  enter.  The 
snow-capped  crest  of  Popocatapetl  shone  in  the  distance,  and  over  the  city, 
from  the  housetops  and  barricaded  streets,  flashed  musketry  and  cannon,  and 
we  were  hurriedly  ushered  into  prison — an  ancient  monastery — for  safety  against 
the  fury  of  the  populace.  The  American  armies  were  on  the  borders,  threaten- 
ing the  life  of  the  nation ;  and  yet  the  priestly  passions  and  love  of  supremacy 
— like  in  Jerusalem  of  old — were  more  dangerous  still  in  the  capital  of  the 
Empire. 

General  Harney  has  in  silence  and  heroic  reserve  stood  for  his  country 
through  all  these  years.  He  has  not  soiled  his  epaulets  with  the  breath  of 
political  aspiration.  Let  the  judges,  the  clergy,  and  the  army  stand  to  their 
several  colors — "  ne  stitor  ultra  crepidam.''''  This  is  all  to  the  credit  of  Harney. 
Hold  him  up  to  our  youth  now  as  history  will  hold  him  up  in  good  time — as 
one  of  the  chiefs  of  diose  patriots  who  lived  not  for  us  only,  but  for  all  man- 
kind. Yours,  etc., 

C.  M.  CLAY. 


IV  TESTIMONIALS. 

From  Jkffersom  Daats. 

Mississippi  City,  Miss.,  January.  1S78. 
L.  U.  REAVIS,  ESQ.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Sir: — It  gives  me  pleasure  to  comply  with  your  request  of  the  30th  ult.,  for 
some  reminiscences  in  connection  with  my  old  friend.  General  W.  S.  Harney. 

In  the  spring  of  1829,  I  reported  as  Brevet  Second  Lieutenant  to  the  com- 
manding officer  at  Fort  Winnebago.  General  Harney  was  then  stationed  at 
that  post,  and  Captain  of  Company  K,  1st  United  States  Infantry.  At  that 
period  of  his  life  he  was,  physically,  the  finest  specimen  of  a  man  I  ever  saw. 
Tall,  straight,  muscular,  broad-chested  and  gaunt-waisted,  he  was  one  of  the 
class  which  Trelawney  describes  as  "nature's  noblemen,"  against  whom  the 
plague  in  the  East  "never  made  an  attack."  Had  he  lived  in  the  time  of 
Homer,  he  would  have  robbed  Achilles  of  his  sottbrwiid  oi  the  "swift-footed," 
for  he  would  run  faster  than  a  white  man,  further  than  an  Indian,  and  in  both 
showed  that  man  was  organized  to  be  master  of  the  beast.  To  elucidate  the 
last  clause  of  the  preceding  paragraph  requires  the  recital  of  an  anecdote. 
Captain  Harney  carefully  attended  to  his  company  garden,  which  on  the  fron- 
tier was  necessary  for  the  comfort  as  well  as  the  health  of  the  men.  The  beds 
had  been  carefully  spaded  and  raked,  when  one  of  his  numerous  dogs — a  half- 
grown  mongrel  hound — came  walking  across  the  carefully  prepared  ground,  and 
the  Captain,  storming  at  him  in  tones  and  in  language  not  suited  to  the  pulpit, 
frightened  the  dog  so  that  instead  of  going  out  by  the  walk,  he  ran  across  the 
bed  towards  the  gap  in  the  fence.  The  Captain  started  in  full  run  after  the 
dog,  which  had  to  jump  on  the  fence  and  then  off  it — fatal  disparity  to  the 
dog,  for  the  Captain  cleared  the  fence  at  a  bound,  which  brought  him  a  jump 
nearer  to  the  dog — and  then  began  an  even  run  up  the  long  slope  which  led  to 
the  Fort,  before  reaching  which,  Harney  mastered  the  dog,  and  "Rover" 
suffered  in  proportion  to  the  length  of  the  chase.  Captain  Harney  was  also  a 
bold  horseman,  fond  of  the  chase,  a  good  boatman,  and  skillful  in  the  use  of 
the  spear  as  a  fisherman.  Neither  drinking  nor  gaming,  he  was  clear  of  those 
rocks  and  shoals  of  life  in  a  frontier  garrison,  and  is  no  doubt  indebted  to  this 
abstinence  for  much  of  the  vigor  he  has  possessed  to  his  present  advanced  age. 
By  long  service  on  the  Indian  frontier,  together  with  that  practical  sense  which 
tests  all  theory  by  actual  obser^'ation.  he  had  acquired  that  knowledge  of 
Indian  character  which  was  often  conspicuously  exhibited  in  his  military 
career. 

Of  the  incidents  thus  generally  referred  to,  you  have  so  many  other  sources 
of  Information  that  it  would  be  needless  for  me  to  enter  into  detail,  but  I  should 
do  injustice  to  the  subject  of  this  letter  if  I  did  not  call  your  attention  to  the 
project  of  a  treaty  he  made  with  the  Sioux  in  1S55  or  '56.  I  think  it  constituted 
the  best  basis  for  an  arrangement  between  the  United  States  Government  and 
an  Indian  tribe  that  has  ever  been  devised,  and  if  carried  out,  would  impress 
the  Indians  with  their  responsibility,  and  bind  them  to  a  more  faithful  observ- 
ance of  it  than  ever  did  any  of  those  verbose,  miscalled  treaties  which  are  to  be 
found  spread  over  the  records  of  the  United  States. 

Yours  respectfully, 

TEKFERSON  D.-WIS. 


TESTIMONIALS.  V 

From  General  E.  G.  W.  Butler,  the  only  suR\aviNG  Schoolmate  of 
General  Harney. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1520  Lucas  Place,  Feb.  i,  1878. 
L.  U.  REAVIS,  ESQ.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.: 

My  Dear  Sir: — My  son,  Major  Lawrence  Lewis  Butler,  has  handed  to  me 
Mr.  Jefferson  Davis'  letter  to  you,  giving  reminiscences  of  his  old  friend  and 
military  contemporary.  General  William  Selby  Harney,  retired  list.  United 
States  army,  with  the  request  that  I,  his  life-long  friend,  would  give  my  recollec- 
tions in  regard  to  him.  I  will  remark  that  we  were  school-boys  together;  that 
in  1816,  while  under  the  tuition  of  the  late  Reverend  Thomas  Craighead,  of 
Haysborough,  Tennessee,  I  was  appointed,  at  the  instance  of  my  lamented 
friend  and  guardian,  Andrew  Jackson,  a  cadet  in  the  United  States  military 
academy;  that,  having  graduated  in  1820,  and  been  appointed  a  second  Lieu- 
tenant in  the  corps  of  artillery,  I  was  assigned  to  the  4th  regiment  of  artillery, 
at  the  reduction  of  the  army  in  1821 ;  selected  for  ordnance  duty,  and  ordered 
to  Baton  Rouge,  where  I  found  the  ist  regiment  of  infantry,  and,  to  my  great 
joy,  my  devoted  friend,  Harney,  who  had  been  appointed  to  a  second  lieuten- 
antcy  in  that  regiment. 

After  passing  four  months,  most  pleasantly,  together ;  partaking  of  the  hos- 
pitalities of  the  then  opulent  sugar  planters  of  that  country,  Congress  having 
failed  to  make  an  appropriation  for  the  erec^on  of  the  arsenal  at  that  place, 
I  was,  by  the  orders  of  Major  General  Gaines,  restored  to  duty  under  Major 
James  Kearney,  of  the  Topographical  Engineers,  then  engaged  in  the  survey 
of  the  harbor  of  Pensacola ;  and  I  took  leave  of  my  valued  friend.  Some 
months  after%vards,  having  completed  our  survey  and  being  ordered  to  Wash- 
ington, I  left  Pensacola  at  the  commencement  of  the  yellow  fever,  which  devas- 
tated that  place,  and  proceeded,  by  way  of  the  "Hermitage,"  to  visit  my  old 
friend  and  second  father;  was  taken  with  the  fever  on  my  arrival  there,  and 
before  I  had  sufficiently  recovered,  commenced  my  journey  to  Washington,  in 
a  stage-coach ;  in  which,  most  fortunately  for  me,  I  found  my  good  friend 
Harney.  The  fatigue  and  exposure,  consequent  upon  such  a  journey,  soon 
caused  a  return  of  my  fever ;  and,  though  obliged  to  stop  more  than  once,  my 
devoted  friend,  though  under  orders,  never  deserted,  but  nursed  me  with  the 
tenderness  of  a  brother ;  and  w^e  parted  at  Washington,  not  to  meet  again  till 
1838,  when,  having  retired  from  ser\'ice  and  being  a  resident  of  Louisiana,  I 
met  him  in  New  Orleans,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Cuba  for  the  benefit 
of  his  health,  which  had  been  greatly  impaired  by  his  senice  in  the  everglades 
of  Florida.  I  took  leave  of  him  on  board  the  vessel  which  conveyed  him  to 
Cuba,  and  saw  him  no  more  till  my  arrival  in  this  place — an  interval  of  nearly 
forty  years. 

During  this  long  interval  I  have  watched  his  military  career  with  the  deepest 
interest,  from  the  everglades  of  Florida  to  the  wilds  of  Alaska,  and  through  the 
far  West,  and  no  man,  since  the  time  of  Andrew  Jackson,  has  impressed  the 
wild  Indian  with  so  much  fear  and  so  much  respect. 

Soon  after  the  last  Presidential  election  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Tilden  to  call  his 
attention  to  the  false  administration  of  Indian  aflairs,  which  recognizes  the  In- 
dian, one  day,  as  a  sovereign  and  ''ndependent  power,  and  competent  signer 


VI  TESTIMONIALS. 

and  party  to  a  treaty,  and  ignores  him  the  next;  reminded  him  that  our  highest 
judicial  tribunal  had  declared  the  Indians  to  be  the  wards  of  the  United 
States,  with  no  other  claim  to  the  soil  than  that  of  occupancy ;  and  urged  it, 
therefore,  as  his  duty  to  protect  them ;  and  suggested  the  propriety  of  his  urg- 
ing upon  Congress  their  speedy  colonization ;  clearly  defining  the  boundaries 
of  the  several  tribes  ;  assigning  retired  officers  of  the  army  as  agents  thereof; 
and  appointing  General  ^Villiam  Selby  Harney  as  Governor-General  of  the 
whole.  The  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  should  never  have  been  separated 
from  that  of  War,  and,  in  view  of  the  Indian's  fear  and  respect  for  military 
men,  and  the  honesty,  kindness,  and  generosity  which  distinguish  the  latter,  as 
a  profession,  I  am  convinced  that,  under  the  guardianship  of  the  Department 
of  War,  and  the  protection  of  the  army,  peace  would  reign  upon  our  borders, 
and  the  yell  of  the  savage  be  heard  no  more. 

In  conclusion,  I  will  remark  that  General  Harney's  education,  like  that  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  was  imperfect ;  but  it  might  be  said  of  him,  as  it  was  of  the 
latter,  "Education  and  habit  may  make  a  soldier  and  statesman:  but  God 
Almighty  alone  can  make  a  hero  and  an  honest  man." 

Faithfully  yours, 

E.  G.  W.  BUTLER- 


From  G»jeral  N.  p.  Banks. 

House  of  Representath'es, 

Washington,  D.  C,  Jan.  14,  1878. 
MR.  L.  U.  REAVIS,  St.  Louis,  Mo.: 

Dear  Sir  : — Your  letter  of  the  9th  Inst.,  inclosing  the  title-page  and  contents 
of  the  Life  of  General  Harney,  was  duly  received.  The  biography  of  the 
country  presents  no  more  interesting  or  romantic  history  than  is  embodicil  in 
the  career  of  that  distinguished  soldier.  It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  contrib- 
ute a  letter  in  accordance  with  your  request,  but  my  duties  preclude  the  possi- 
bility of  that  now.  I  have  always  had  great  esteem  and  admiration  for  General 
Harney,  whom  I  have  known  for  many  years,  and  I  cherish  the  recollection  of 
my  acquaintance  with  him  with  the  highest  satisfaction. 

Very  truly  yours, 

N.  P.  BANKS. 


From  General  Coburn. 

Indianapolis,  Ind.,  March  23.  1878. 
L.  U.  REAVIS,  ESQ.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.: 

Dear  Sir: — I  have  received  from  you  the  title  page  and  introduction  of  your 
biography  of  General  Wm.  S.  Harney.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  you  will 
make  an  interesting  and  valuable  book  out  of  the  materials  furnished  by  his 
long  and  conspicuous  career.  General  Harney  has  occupied  so  many  impor- 
tant positions  upon  the  frontier,  and  taken  such  an  active  part  in  so  many  mat- 
ters of  great  public  interest  that  you  must  find  him  identified  with  much  that  is 
important  in  our  national  history.  I  formed  General  Harney's  acquaintance  a 
few  years  since,  whil'^  I   was  a  member  of  the    House  Militarv  Conmiittee,  he 


TESTIMONIALS.  VU 

being  summoned  there,  at  the  request  of  certain  members,  to  sustain  them  in 
the  position  that  the  Indian  was  a  treacherous,  lazy,  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  foe 
of  the  whites.  To  the  astonishment  of  these  gentlemen,  he  gave  the  Indian  a 
good  character;  said  that  he  had  been  sinned  against  and  imposed  upon  ;  that 
he  was  an  observer  of  treaties,  and,  as  a  general  rule,  went  into  war  reluctantly. 
He  proved  himself  to  be  the  friend  and  kind  advocate  of  the  red  man,  de- 
nouncing the  villainies  of  those  who  cheated  and  wronged  him.  I  was  struck 
with  his  independence  and  manliness,  of  character.  In  his  old  age  he  still  ex- 
hibited the  vigor  which  has  resisted  ten  thousand  hardships  on  the  frontier. 

General  Harney  is  one  of  the  unique,  original  and  powerful  men  of  our  old 
regular  army.  Yours  truly, 

JOHN  COBURN. 


From  General  Benj.  F.  Butler. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  Feb.  6,  1878. 
L.  U.  REAVIS,  ESQ.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.: 

Dear  Sir: — My  acquaintance  with  General  Harney  was  not  until  the  latter 
part  of  his  life,  when  he  came  before  me  in  connection  with  Indian  affairs,  as  a 
member  of  the  Judiciary  Committee.  I  was  very  much  struck  with  the  direc- 
tion of  his  mind,  the  entire  integrity  with  which  it  seemed  he  had  managed  the 
affairs  intrusted  to  him,  and  that  official  connection  ripened  into  a  friendly  in- 
tercourse, which  I  am  sorry  to  say  our  different  employments,  and  the  great 
distance  between  our  places  of  residence,  gave  little  opportunity  to  cultivate. 

Yours  truly, 

BENJ.  F.  BUTLER. 


From  the  "Globe-Democrat." 
The  "Life  of  General  Harney,"  upon  which  Mr.  Reavis  has  been  engaged 
for  some  time,  is  almost  ready  for  the  book  stores.  It  will  be  a  volume  full  of 
interest,  not  only  on  account  of  its  immediate  subject,  but  on  account  of  the 
vast  quantity  of  historical  matter  which  it  will  necessarily  bring  to  light.  In- 
deed, the  story  of  General  Harney's  life  cannot  be  faithfully  told  without  lay- 
ing bare  the  whole  of  the  Indian  question  for  the  last  half  century.  And  so  of 
other  important  matters  connected  with  the  military  operations  of  the  country 
up  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion.  The  book  will  supply  the  "missing 
link"  in  our  unwritten  history  between  the  war  of  1812  and  the  greater  war  of 
1861-65. 


From  General  Beauregard. 

New  Orleans,  March  4,  1878. 
L.  U.  REAVIS,  ESQ.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.: 

My  Dear  Sir  : — I  am  happy  to  learn  that  you  are  engaged  in  writing  the  life 
and  military  services  of  General  WiUiam  Selby  Harney,  than  whom  a  nobler 
soldier  and  more  perfect  gentleman  could  not  have  been  selected,  whose  deeds 


Viii  TESTIMONIALS. 

should  occupy  your  able  and  facile  pen.  The  General  commenced  his  military 
career,  I  may  say,  in  this  State,  for  shortly  after  his  appointment  to  the  ist 
Regiment  of  United  States  Infantry,  he  was  stationed  many  years  in  Baton 
Rouge  and  in  this  city,  in  which  latter  place  he  became  soon  the  intimate  friend 
of  some  of  our  worthiest  citizens,  whose  names  are  State  celebrities,  such  as 
Grymes,  Mayensau,  Soule,  Rozelius,  Marigny,  Wm.  De  Buys,  John  L.  Lewis, 
and  others  too  numerous  to  mention. 

I  had  the  honor,  while  quite  young,  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  General 
Harney,  just  before  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  when  Captain  R.  E.  Lee  and 
myself,  having  made  the  reconnoissance  by  which  Santa  Anna's  left  flank  and 
rear  could  be  turned,  met  him  at  General  Scott's  headquarters  to  explain  to  him 
tlie  topography  of  the  country,  the  route  he  would  follow  and  the  obstacles  he 
might  expect  to  encounter,  for  he  had  been  selected  by  the  General-in-Chief  to 
command  the  troops  who  were  to  assault  the  fortified  crest  of  Cerro  Gordo,  de- 
fended by  Santa  Anna's  veterans  who  had  just  returned  with  him  from  the 
bloody  field  of  Buena  Vista. 

I  remember  distinctly  the  quiet  and  oflicer-like  manner  in  which  General 
Harney  received  our  information  and  the  facility  with  which  he  seemed  to  un- 
derstand all  we  had  to  say  on  a  matter  of  such  importance  to  himself  and  com- 
mand. The  next  morning  when  the  attack  commenced,  it  was  truly  exhilarat- 
ing to  see  him  charging,  sword  in  hand,  along  the  steep  slope  of  that  high  hill, 
his  tall,  manly  figure  towering  above  all  the  gallant  oflScers  and  men  who  sur- 
rounded him.  It  was  a  sight  never  to  be  forgotten !  He  was  one  of  the  first 
Inside  the  enemy's  works,  unhurt  and  ready  to  attack  the  other  positions  on  our 
right  still  held  by  the  Mexicans.  But  the  key  of  those  positions  being  then  in 
our  possession,  and  the  line  of  retreat  to  the  City  of  Mexico  being  cut  off,  the 
Mexicans  were  compelled  to  surrender  unconditionally.  Santa  Anna,  how- 
ever, had  hastily  mounted  his  horse  as  soon  as  he  had  noticed  the  fall  of  Cerro 
Gordo,  and  made  good  his  escape,  leaving  in  our  hands  his  carriage  containing 
an  extra  cork  leg,  his  private  and  public  papers  and  his  baggage. 

From  that  battle  to  the  end  of  the  war  General  Harney  became  the  favorite 
of  all  the  young  officers  of  the  army,  whom  he  always  treated  with  that  kind- 
ness and  urbanity  of  manners  which  distinguish  him  to  this  day. 

Wishing  you,  ray  dear  sir,  success  in  your  undertaking,  I  remain  yours  most 
truly,  G.  T.  BEAUREGARD. 


PREFACE. 


IN  book-making,  as  in  many  other  branches  of  industry, 
the  American  people  have  already  demonstrated  a 
spirit  of  enterprise  greater  than  can  be  found  in  the 
people  of  older  nations.  The  invention  and  improvement 
of  the  art  of  printing,  and  the  diffusion  of  intelligence 
in  the  United  States  by  means  of  a  system  of  popular 
education,  have  unfettered  the  American  mind,  and  book- 
making  has  grown  to  be  a  branch  of  intellectual  labor  of 
immense  magnitude. 

Three  generations  and  more  ago,  it  was  a  popular 
method  to  present  intelligence,  both  in  this  country  and 
Europe,  through  the  medium  of  the  pamphlet.  Then  the 
number  of  books  issued  from  the  press  annually  was  much 
less,  in  proportion  to  the  population,  than  now,  and,  in 
many  instances,  better.  The  newspapers  and  magazines 
Tiave  almost  driven  the  pamphlet  from  the  field  of  public 
discussion,  and  the  greater  number  of  those  who  now  write, 
seek  to  present  their  views  through  the  medium  of  a  vol- 
ume, as  a  more  substantial  and  creditable  means  of  discus- 
sion, outside  of  the  newspaper  and  the  magazine. 

What  changes  the  future  may  have  in  reserve  relating  to 
the  mode  of  disseminating  intelligence,  time  alone  can  tell. 
Be  the  changes  many  or  few,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  the 
literature  of  the  future,  age  and  experience  will  bring  to 
our  people  that  maturity  and  wisdom  of  thought  which 
increased  years  alone  can  supply. 

The  present  volume  is  not  designed  merely  to  swell  the 
number  of  American  books,  or  to  gratify  a  personal  vanity, 
but  rather  to  present  to  the  public — the  American  people — 


X  PREFACE. 

a  carefully  gathered  record  of  the  life  and  military  services 
of  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  American  soldiers. 

A  people  so  young  as  the  American  people  could  hardly 
be  expected  to  present  to  the  world  examples  of  military 
chieftains  and  heroes  equal  to  the  most  noted  of  those 
belonfrincr  to  older  and  more  warlike  nations;  but  the 
patriotic  American  will  readily  challenge  comparison  be- 
tween the  citizen  soldier  and  the  educated  soldier  of  his 
country,  with  the  most  noted  and  successful  warriors  of  any 
other  age  or  nation.  And  if  the  comparison  is  ever  made 
by  the  analytical  writer  of  military  history,  General  Harney 
will  be  brought  forth  to  compare  with  the  greatest  cavalry 
officers  known  to  European  warfare.  His  soldierly  qualities 
have  made  him  both  a  good  and  distinguished  warrior^ 
For  more  than  half  a  century  he  has  been  a  noted  soldier. 
His  eventful  career  began  with  his  first  commission,  dated 
February  13,  1818.  His  first  military  services  were  in  pur- 
suit of  some  of  the  Lafitte  band  of  pirates,  in  the  swamps 
of  Louisiana,  soon  after  he  received  his  commission.  With 
this  initial  service  began  his  eventful  military  life,  which 
extended  through  the  two  Seminole  or  Florida  wars,  the 
Black  Hawk  and  Mexican  wars,  on  the  Plains  and  Pacific 
coast.  He  may  justly  be  called  the  military  Humboldt  of 
this  country ;  the  pioneer  soldier,  whose  wanderings  have 
extended  over  all  our  territory,  from  the  everglades  of 
Florida  to  the  "bad  lands"  of  Dakota,  and  from  the  city 
of  Mexico  to  Puget  Sound.  He  has  ever  been  a  remarka- 
ble man.  His  life  has  been  peculiar,  and  his  whole  career 
teems  with  the  thrilling  deeds  of  cxie  of  the  most  eminent 
military  heroes  known  to  American  history. 

Like  the  German  Humboldt,  he  has  been  the  friend  and 
associate  of  chieftains,  explorers,  travelers,  scholars,  states- 
men and  divines ;  the  friend  and  conqueror  of  savage 
tribes,  and  the  nation's  faithful  soldier. 

The  wilderness  and  the  frontier  were  the  home  of  Gen- 
eral  Harney  for  more  than  a  generation.     The  lagoons  of 


PREFACE.  Xt 

Louisiana,  the  everglades  of  Florida,  the  territory  lying- 
along  the  Mississippi,  now  parcelled  into  rich  and  populous 
States,  the  plains  of  the  great  West,  the  Black  Hills,  where 
adventurous  spirits  now  delve  for  gold,  and  the  north- 
western jewel  of  our  starry  circle,  distant  Oregon,  have 
each  been  the  field  of  his  services  and  his  labors,  and  in 
each  of  those  quarters  is  his  name  echoed  with  reverence 
and  pride ;  and  his  labors,  like  those  of  Hercules,  have 
been  to  confront  and  achieve  victories  over  formidable 
obstructions  to  human  progress.  He  has  contested  with 
wild  beasts  and  savages  the  empire  of  civilized  men  over 
nature,  and  opened  the  way  for  the  progre9B  of  Saxon 
civilization  westward  across  the  continent. 

The  record  of  a  life  so  eventful  and  useful  as  that  pre- 
sented by  General  Harney,  cannot  fail  to  be  rich  in  lessons 
of  daring  and  heroic  deeds — lessons  in  the  highest  degree 
worthy  a  place  in  the  biographical  annals  of  our  country. 
It  shall  therefore  be  my  purpose  to  present  him  to  his 
countrymen  as  a  loyal  and  warm-hearted  chieftain,  wha 
vindicated  the  honor  of  the  nation  on  every  battle-field 
where  duty  called  him,  and  periled  his  life  to  maintain 
unsullied  the  honor  and  valor  of  the  true  warrior.  Such  a 
soldier  is  a  benefactor,  and  worthy  to  be  honored  by  the 
American  people. 

But  General  Harney  embodies  other  qualities  than  those 
of  a  soldier.  He  combines,  in  a  high  degree,  the  elements 
of  true  manhood,  of  gallantry  and  chivalry.  We  may  tell 
that  the  "  vows  of  knighthood,  the  ceremonials  of  installa- 
tions, the  pomp  and  splendor  of  knightly  feats  have  gone, 
but  the  devotion  of  the  patri«t,  the  ardor  of  the  warrior,  the 
warmth  of  the  lover,  the  fidelity  of  the  friend,  the  loyalty 
and  the  truth  of  men  of  honor,  do  not  sleep  in  the  graves 
of  Charlemagne,  Roland  and  Bayard."  These  chosen  at- 
tributes of  human  nature,  indigenous  to  this  Western  land^ 
find  full  and  free  expression  in  his  character,  and  are 
worthy  of  imitation  by  the  rising  manhood  of  our  country. 


Xll  PREFACE. 

Trusting  that  the  record  herewith  presented  shall  be 
judged  worthy  the  character  and  fame  of  him  whom  it  is 
designed  to  present  to  the  public,  and  that  both  my  hero 
and  my  record  will  be  duly  appreciated  by  the  American 
people,  I  submit  this  volume  in  the  spirit  of  devotion  to 
those  who  have  periled  their  lives  and  made  themselves 
illustrious  in  the  defense  of  my  country. 

L.  U.  R. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  July  ist,  1878. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


BY  HON.   C.  M.  CLAY. 

__yORESTS  and  flowers  and  fruits,  growth,  beauty  and  ma- 
'^  turity  for  succession,  is  the  law  of  the  flora.  The  same 
law  rules  animal  life.  Forms  change,  but  the  elements 
of  things  are  eternal.  Whether  plants  have  in  the  succession 
of  ages  increased  in  size  or  not,  is  yet  a  matter  of  doubt; 
in  beauty  and  utility  of  fruit  they  certainly  have.  It  may 
be  that  greater  heat  may  have  been  the  cause  of  a  ranker 
growth  ;  then  again,  the  finer  species  may  have  left  na 
trace  behind.  The  superior  size  and  ages  of  ancient  man 
may  be  fabulous.  It  may  be,  if  otherwise,  that  better 
knowledge  of  the  natural  laws  may  compensate  for  the 
complexities  of  civilization,  and  man  be  restored  .to  his 
original  types.  One  thing  is  certain,  there  are  laws  which 
govern  mind  and  body,  and  they  are  equally  fixed  and 
operative.  The  theory  of  the  creation  of  the  world  is  not 
essential  to  our  happiness.  No  doubt  that  the  Great  First 
Cause  is  a  certainty  ;  but  what  of  Him'?  All  that  is  sure 
in  theological  enquiry  is,  that  the  unknown  is  to  us,  so  far 
forth,  unknowable.  Let  us  hope  that  at  some  time  more 
will  be  revealed  to  us,  and  then  rest.  All  the  laws  of  mat- 
ter and  mind  are  before  us  for  investigation.  Ignorance 
can  never  be  bliss.  We  are  governed  all  the  same — if  the 
laws  are  in  conflict  with  our  action  or  subjections,  we  are 
the  sufferers,  not  they.  It  was  not  a  vain  aspiration  of  the 
poet :  "  Still  let  us  ponder  boldly;  it  is  a  base  abandonment 
of  reason  to  resign  our  right  of  thought,  our  last  sole 
refuge — this  at  least  shall  still  be  mine."    Let  reason,  tradi- 


XIV  INTRODUCTORY. 

tion,  and  theory,  and  science  have  equal  play,  and  victory 
will  at  last  perch  upon  the  standard  of  truth,  and  truth  is 
but  another  word  for  the  eternal  laws.  When  the  flora 
have  perished,  they  are  the  fertilized  beds  of  new  vegeta- 
tion. So  man,  and  the  family,  and  the  nation  perish,  but 
are  again  renewed.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that 
we  at  least  progress,  that  something  is  ever  saved  from  the 
•wreck  to  aid  in  the  new  voyage.  In  one  sense  there  is 
surely  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  that  is,  there  is  still  mind 
and  body.  But  who  can  say  that  under  a  better  knowledge 
the  infinite  variety  of  capability  is  not  increased  for  the 
better  ?  Every  one  must  speak  for  himself.  For  my  part, 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  there  is,  has  been,  and  will  be 
progress  is  proved.  Look  at  the  sparse,  crude,  and  suffer- 
ing population  of  the  savage  state  ;  and  then  at  the  vast 
numbers,  the  increased  comforts  and  pleasures  of  the  civil- 
ized. Cut  off  the  lower  strata,  where  population  is  ever 
checked  by  destitution,  disease,  and  early  death,  and  then 
take  the  upper  tier  of  humanity,  and  what  a  vast  change 
for  the  better !  And  what  of  death  ?  When  man  shall 
live  according  to  the  law  of  nature,  and  nature's  God,  if  it 
better  pleases,  death  will  have  no  terrors.  In  years  it  will 
be  afar  off.  The  parent  is  absorbed  into  the  child.  The 
aspirations,  the  accumulations  of  physical  comforts,  the 
every  surroundings  of  the  parent  are  merged  into  the  child. 
Insensible  and  without  pain,  and  without  consciousness, 
the  one  stops,  dies,  but  the  other  goes  on,  and  succession 
is  forever.  The  physical  and  mental  attributes  of  God  are 
the  exponents  of  the  ideas  of  man.  At  first  He  is  known 
but  in  storms  and  lightning  and  disease  and  death. 
Hideous!  But  as  science  proves  that  storms  cleanse  the  air, 
lightning  is  the  element  perhaps  of  vitality,  and  that  dis- 
ease and  death  are  not  unmixed  evils — then  God  begins  to 
be  Benevolent.  He  will  at  last  no  doubt  become  "  Alto- 
gether Lovely  f*  Then  shall  we  be  so  likewise.  The  strug- 
gle between   good  and  evil   may   never  cease,  but  victor)' 


INTRODUCTORY.  XV 

will  more  and  more  rest  upon  the  standard  of  virtue.  Let 
us  be  ever  mindful  that  we  are  of  earth  and  spirit,  body 
and  mind,  and  keep  up  the  just  equilibrium.  It  is  not  at  all 
desirable  that  any  one  should  be  pre-eminent  for  self-sake, 
in  any  mental  or  physical  phase  of  being.  The  great  brain, 
the  pioneer  in  thoughts,  is  more  to  be  pitied  than  envied. 
Mankind  may  profit  by  such,  but  they  are  themselves  the 
victims  of  science  or  action.  In  pursuit  of  one  law  they 
too  often  violate  the  rest.  The  ditch  is  filled  about  the 
fortifications  with  the  fallen ;  the  walls  are  scaled ;  the 
banners  of  the  victors  are  floated  on  high  ;  but  alas  !  for 
the  useful  dead,  who  respond  no  more  to  these  triumphs, 
forever  !  Then  must  there  be  harmony  in  man's  develop- 
ment, mental  and  physical,  and  there  rests  the  secret  of 
happiness.  The  differences  between  men  and  women  are  as 
wide  as  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  yet  one  mingles  im- 
perceptibly with  the  other.  Of  all  pitiable  things,  the 
most  melancholy  is  the  "  strong-minded  woman."  Heaven 
is  the  ideal  of  all  possible  enjoyment ;  hell  of  all  that  can 
be  suffered  in  nature.  The  sum  of  all  aspiration,  or  the 
highest  aspiration  —  the  "To  Kalon  "  —  the  "  Summum 
Bonum  " — the  flower  of  the  tree  of  the  beautiful,  is  woman. 
In  this  central  ideal  or  real,  is  accumulated  all  that  is  pos- 
sible, and  all  that  is  imaginable.  But  unsex  her,  and  she  is 
the  positive  electricity  no  more,  but  at  once  repulsive — the 
negative  pole.  Here  there  must  be  neither  the  seclusion, 
and  consequent  mental  abatement  of  the  far  East,  nor  the 
dangerous  freedom  of  the  far  West,  but  that  "juste  milieu" 
which  is  safest  in  all  nature's  work.  Let  us  then  develop 
the  self,  the  family,  and  the  State.  Nor  let  us  worship  far- 
off  heroes.  That  which  is  gone  is  for  us  no  more,  but 
rather  that  which  is  and  that  which  is  to  come.  The  men 
who  have  lived  near  us  and  for  us,  let  them  be  our  gods. 
W.  S.  Harney  is  one  of  these — such  men  as  the  divine 
Shakespeare  has  set  before  us — every  way  developed  in 
body,  in  beauty,  which  is  its  highest  attribute,  in  strength 


XVI  INTRODUCTORY. 

in  health,  in  tenacity  and  endurance;  In  mind,  in  heroic 
courage,  in  sagacity,  in  rapid  combination  and  quick  action, 
in  the  virtues  which  belong  to  the  family,  the  patriotic 
ardor  and  self-sacrifice,  which  are  the  dues  of  the  State. 
No  vain  aspirations,  no  idle  repinings,  no  ignoble  inertness,, 
no  limping  achievements,  but  a  live,  sound,  harmonious 
being  in  mind  and  body,  whom  men  and  women  love,  and 
are  the  better  for  the  loving.  When  I  hear  of  the  views  of 
some  of  our  political  Generals,  who  have  lost  in  the  cabinet 
all  they  won  in  the  field,  I  am  reminded  of  Burns  and  his 
cotemporaries.  Burns,  the  child  of  nature,  true  in  senti- 
ment, the  peasant  in  place,  but  god-like  in  conception,  yet 
lives  in  the  affections,  and  grows  with  the  increased  admira- 
tion of  the  ages ;  but  they,  his  scoffers,  where  are  they 
now?  Evanishing  ever,  and  at  last  forgot.  These  small 
fighters  affect  small  speeches.  "  Napoleon  and  Cromwell 
spoke  little  !  "  Indeed  !  But  that  little  was  much  I  Har- 
ney's defence  of  the  Union  cause  and  the  "old  flag"  will 
live  in  history  as  the  most  intellectual  and  the  most  elo- 
quent of  those  times,  next  to  the  immortal  Lincoln.  Rest, 
then,  brave  heart,  secure  in  the  love  and  confidence  of 
those  who  shall  reap  the  fruits  of  your  long  and  painful 
sowings.  As  fierce  were  the  flashes  of  your  trenchant 
blade  in  ascending  life,  so  gently  lengthening  be  the  shad- 
ows of  thy  decline.  You  lived  for  the  nation,  so  let  thy 
living  be  merged  into  the  life  of  the  people  you  loved  so 
well,  and  be  immortal  with  themselves. 

C.  M.  CLAY. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 
Preliminary  Statement.  ....••  21 

CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL  HARNEY' S  YOUTH. 

Place  and  date  of  birth — Condition  of  society — Nashville  and  the  Hennit- 
age — Incidents  of  early  life — Davy  Crockett,  Jackson,  Benton — Sam 
Houston  and  his  romantic  history — General  Harney's  mother — A 
woman  after  the  old  Roman  model — How  she  moulded  buUets  to 
shoot  the  red  skins — Tragic  career  of  General  Harney's  brother — 
Harney  receives  his  commission  and  enters  the  army.         .  .  -35 

CHAPTER  H. 

LIEUTENANT   HARNEY    AND   THE   PIRATE   LAFITTE. 

Young  Harney  joins  his  regiment — Some  account  of  the  Lafittes — How 
they  saved  the  day  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans — The  bold  buccaneers 
on  sea  and  land — Lieutenant  Harney  goes  on  an  expedition  after  the 
pirates — And  captures  two  of  their  vessels  and  a  large  amount  of  booty 
— Bars  of  iron  loaded  with  quicksilver — Sufferings  of  the  party  during 
the  expedition — Harney  is  ordered  to  Boston  on  recruiting  ser\'ice — 
The  first  Florida  war — How  "Old  Hickory"  disposed  of  some 
troublesome  customers '45 

CHAPTER  HI. 

EXPEDITION    TO    THE  YELLOWSTONE. 

Young  Harney  visits  St.  Louis  for  the  first  time — St.  Louis  and  Jefferson 
Larracks  in  1824 — Some  memories  of  Carondelet  and  Bellefontaine 
— ^A  trip  up  the  Missouri  in  keel-boats — Major  O'Fallon  and  the  In- 
dian— Harney  saves  the  expedition  from  massacre — A  foot  race — 
Almost  a  merchant 59 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. 

What  caused  the  war — Harney  at  Fort  Winnebaga — He  meets  Jeff.  Davis 
— Anecdote  of  the  unruly  dog — A  race  and  a  ducking — Active  move- 
ments against  Black  Hawk  and  his  wa'riors — massacre  of  Major 
Stillman  and  his  party — The  battle  of  Bad  Ax  and  capture  of  Black 
Hawk — Harney's  introduction   to  Abe  Lincoln  and  Zachary  Taylor     72 


15  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 
SECOND   FLORIDA  WAR. 

Description  of  Florida — The  Spanish  conquest — Indian  troubles — Harney 
is  promoted  and  takes  a  prominent  part  in  the  war — Scouting  and 
fighting — Official  reports  of  battles — Discreditable  conduct  of  Mr. 
Poinsett,  Secretary  of  War. 92 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   FLORIDA  WAR  CONTINUED. 

Treachery  of  Osceola — A  decisive  battle — Defeat  of  the  Indians — Death 
of  Osceola — A  description  of  his  character  and  appearance — Colonel 
Harney's  perilous  campaign  in  the  swamps  and  everglades — An  am- 
bush from  which  the  Colonel  makes  a  narrow  escape — Capture  of 
Chaikika's  band — Harney  uses  a  rope  to  good  purpose — Treaty  with 
the  Indians   and  close  of  the  war 119 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   MEXICAN  WAR. 

Review  of  the  Texas  question — Sara  Houston  and  the  battle  of  San  Jacin- 
to— Trouble  with  the  United  States — Taylor  and  his  brilliant  victories 
— Colonel  Harney  is  promoted  and  assigned  to  important  duties     .     .   149 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

SCOTT  AND   HARNEY. 

The  Commander-in-Chief  becomes  jealous  of  the  dashing  Colonel  of  dra- 
goons— The  origin  of  the  trouble — Cutting  letters  between  Taylor 
and  Scott — Hamey  relieved  of  his  command — Refuses  to  obey  and 
is  tried  by  court-martial — The  Secretary  of  War  rebukes  Scott  and 
commends  Harney — A  lively  chapter,  full  of  revelations.        .         .       .   162 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  MEXICAN    WAR    CONTlNfED. 

Colonel  Hamey  restored  to  his  command  and  ordered  to  serve  under 
Scott — A  dangerous  adventure  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico — Capture  of 
Vera  Cruz — Harney  disobeys  orders  again  and  wins  a  brilliant  victory 
at  Madellin — General  Scott  highly  commends  the  gallant  Colonel.  ,    .   iSi 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR  CONTINUED. 

Colonel  Harney  and  his  dragoons  find  work  to  do  in  reconnoitering  the 
enemy's  position — Brilliant  charge  at  Cerro  Gordo — Graphic  descrip- 
tion of  this  great  event — A  gallant  Mexican  officer — Colonel  Harney 
is  promoted  to  the  rank  of  Brigadier  General 194 


CONTENTS.  _'  19 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR  CONTINUED. 

Marching  into  the  enemy's  country — -Friendly  meeting  between  Scott  and 
Harney — Battles  around  the  City  of  Mexico — General  Harney's  bril- 
liant charge  at  Contreras — An  unpleasant  duty  performed — Perilous 
adventure  of  an  American  officer — Capture  of  the  City  of  Mexico — 
Harney's  summary  disposal  of  some  rascals — Peace  declared,  and 
Harney  ordered  to  Washington  with  dispatches — Popular  demonstra- 
tions of  admiration  on  the  route .  225 

CHAPTER  XH. 

THE  SIOUX  EXPEDITION. 

General  Harney  visits  his  family  in  Paris — But  receives  orders  to  return 
and  take  command  of  an  expedition  against  the  Sioux  Indians — 
Causes  of  the  Indian  war — Harney  advances  into  the  Indian  country 
and  wins  the  battle  of  Ash  Hollow — Graphic  report  of  the  fight — 
Council  and  treaty  with  the  savages — More  service  in  Florida     .     .     .  246 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   KANSAS  TROUBLES. 

The  slavery  question — Serious  difficulties  in  Kansas — General  Harney  or- 
dered to  take  command  of  the  troops  and  preserve  the  peace — His 
vigorous  measures  soon  restore  quiet — Takes  command  of  the  expe- 
dition against  the  Mormons — He  proposes  to  hang  Brigham  Young 
and  his  apostles  and  permanently  settle  the  Mormon  question — These 
measures  considered  too  vigorous,  and  he  is  succeeded  by  General 
Johnston  and  ordered  to  Oregon 268 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

SERVICE  IN   OREGON. 

Father  DeSmet  selected  to  negotiate  with  the  Indians — Happy  results  of 
his  benevolent  influence — Description  of  the  Oregon  Indians — Insub- 
ordination of  Lieutenant  Sill — General  Scott's  unauthorized  interfer- 
ence— A  lively  correspondence  between  the  two  Generals.  -  -  280 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   SAN  JUAN   TROUBLES   EXPLAINED 

Description  of  the  Island  of  San  Juan — Trouble  with  the  English — Threats 
of  war — General  Harney  takes  possession  of  the  Island — Full  ac- 
count of  this  important  affair  m  our  national  history,  with  official  cor- 
respondence,   etc. 315 


20  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   CIVIL   WAR. 

Election  of  Lincoln  and  commencement  of  the  strife — General  Harney 
placed  in  command  at  St.  Louis — Is  captured  at  Harper's  Ferry  while 
on  his  way  to  Washington,  and  conveyed  to  Richmond  as  a  prisoner  of 
war — Is  released  and  returns  to  his  command — The  Camp  Jackson  af- 
fair— The  Price-Harney  agreement — Intrigues  for  the  removal  of  Gen- 
eral Harney — The  Blair  family — Interesting  correspondence — A  char- 
acteristic letter  from  President  Lincoln — Harney  is  placed  upon  the 
retired  list,  and  Lyon  assume  command  of  the  department — An  able 
letter  from  General  Harney  vindicating  his  loyalty  and  patriotism  .  .  347 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    AMERICAN     INDIAN. 

Description  of  the  religious  and  social  customs  of  the  Indian,  with  an  ac- 
count of  General  Harney's  campaigns  against  them.         .  .  .  394 

CHAPTER  XVIII: 

RECOLLECTIONS,  INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES.  ......   45O 


LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY 


PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT. 


Y_/HE  discovery,  exploration  and  settlement  of  Amer- 
I  ica  opened  a  new  field  for  human  progress  and  civil- 
ization  to  the  world,  a  theater  for  development  more 
ample  and  fruitful  than  had  ever  been  opened  to  the 
human  race.  Civilization,  originating  in  the  East,  had 
reached  only  a  certain  point,  where  it  stopped,  and  where  it 
has  stood  for  thousands  of  ages.  It  stands  now  in  China 
and  Hindostan  where  it  stood  in  the  age  of  Confucius  and 
Buddha,  and  where  it  will  ever  stand  among  the  Mongolian 
races.  The  Caucasians,  who  colonized  Greece  and  Italy, 
and  subsequently  Spain,  Gaul  and  Britain,  and  have  alone  in 
Europe  shown  an  aptitude  for  the  higher  and  more  exalted 
civilization  which  was  the  result  of  the  conquests  of  their 
arts  and  their  arms,  have  developed  in  the  New  World  a 
nation  at  once  the  pride  and  wonder  of  mankind. 

The  agencies  which,  in  the  hands  of  Him  who  prescribes 
the  destinies  of  nations,  have  wrought  their  wonders  on  this 
continent  in  the  last  four  centuries,  are  deserving  of  serious 
consideration.  They  furnish  for  the  contemplative  student 
of  history  a  study  worthy  of  his  earnest  attention.  The 
struggle  in  Europe  between  the  barbarians  and  the  effete 


22  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

and  effeminate  Roman  emperors  threatened  to  destroy  the 
learning,  arts  and  civihzation  of  the  world,  when  Christian- 
ity came  to  their  aid  and  offered  a  safe  asylum  among  the  re- 
ligious custodians  of  her  monasteries,  where,  in  the  dark  ages, 
learning  was  not  only  preserved  but  progressed,  and  virtue, 
becoming  her  constant  associate,  conquered  in  her  turn  the 
rude  warriors  who  would  have  destroyed  her,  by  convert- 
ing them  to  the  mild  and  just  tenets  of  divine  teaching,  and 
to  the  arts  and  pursuits  of  peace.  From  these  sacred  re- 
treats, where  learning  and  civilization  found  a  safe  sanctuary 
from  the  Goth,  the  Vandal,  the  Hun  and  the  Saracen,  came 
forth  science  and  art,  which  improved  navigation  by  the  in- 
vention of  the  mariner's  compass ;  and  with  religion  and 
science  there  came  forth  and  was  developed  the  Restless, 
aggressive  but  peaceful  genius  of  commerce.  Under  the 
aegis  of  commerce,  aided  by  the  appliances  of  art,  frail  ships 
ventured  into  the  broad  ocean,  and  found  paths  in  the 
trackless  and  unknown  tide.  The  Genoese  navigator  push- 
ed boldly  forth  and  sailed  due  westward  to  find  a  new  route 
to  the  Indies,  which  lay  twelve  thousand  miles  to  the  east. 
On  his  wa\'  he  found  a  new  and  unknown  land.  Vasco  di 
Gama  found  a  new  path  likewise  to  the  east,  by  way  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  These  bold  discoverers  were  soon 
followed  by  bold  and  restless  adventurers.  The  sails  of 
their  argosies  and  galleons  whitened  the  waters  of  unknown 
seas  and  startled  the  simple  natives  of  hitherto  unknown 
continents. 

With  the  discovery  of  America  by  Christopher  Columbus, 
the  star  of  civilization  moved  westward,  and  to  progress 
was  opened  a  new  field,  where,  with  }-oung  and  fresh  life,  on 
a  virgin  and  unexplored  continent,  was  to  be  developed  a 
new  phase  of  enlightenment,  a  new  asylum  for  learning  and 
science,  and,  more  than  all,  a  constellation  of  States  where 
human  liberty,  civil  and  religious,  has  been  destined  to 
exist,  trammelled  by  no  restrictions  short  of  the  borders  of 
license  and   intolerance.     Slow  and  painful  were  the  first 


PRELIMINARY    STATEMENT.  2^ 

conquests  of  the  hardy  emigrants  who  settled  on  the  shores 
of  North  America.  Inhospitable  climates  were  to  be  con- 
fronted, forests  were  to  be  leveled,  and  the  hardy  and  wild 
savage  to  be  overcome.  The  Swedes  of  New  York,  the 
Puritans  of  New  England,  the  Swiss  and  Huguenots  of  the 
Carolinas,  the  Quakers  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Colonists 
of  Lord  Baltimore  and  Oglethorpe  in  Maryland  and 
Georgia,  with  the  early  cavaliers  of  Virginia,  struggled  for 
over  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  civilization  began  to 
pass  the  Appalachian  chain,  and  fixed  a  home  out  of  sight 
of  the  Atlantic.  The  hardy  Jesuit  and  Franciscan  mission- 
ary, or  the  lone  and  solitary  hunter,  almost  as  much  a  nomad 
as  the  Indian  natives,  had  barely  traversed  the  trackless 
forests  and  made  a  few  discoveries  with  which  to  enrich  the 
meager  geography  of  the  time.  The  Father  of  Waters,  dis- 
covered by  Father  Marquette  in  1673,  had  been  for  nearly 
two  centuries  unknown  and  unseen  of  Europeans,  except 
to  the  hardy  followers  of  De  Soto,  who  crossed  it  in  1541, 
seeking  the  gold  fields  of  the  Western  Sierras. 

Slow  was  the  progress  of  the  settlements  in  America,  up  to 
the  time  of  the  revolt  of  the  thirteen  English  colonies  against 
the  mother  country.  Their  hardships  and  labors  had  edu- 
cated them  to  self-reliance,  energy  and  courage,  and  to  a 
love  of  liberty  and  independence  which  has  been  the  deep 
and  well  laid  foundation  of  that  national  greatness  which  has 
crowned  their  autonomy  in  later  years.  During  this  period 
the  necessity  for  making  bread  and  repelling  the  attacks  of 
hostile  Indians  was  greater  than  the  claims  of  science  or 
the  curiosity  for  discovery.  Nevertheless,  Franklin  had  de- 
monstrated by  his  experiments  in  electricity,  that  the  winged 
lightening  of  the  heavens  could  be  tamed  and  controlled, 
from  which  has  since  been  invented  the  electric  telegraph 
and  the  telephone.  The  first  is  now  indispensable  to  the 
most  ordinary  transactions  of  life,  and  has  been  brought 
into  vogue  only  within  the  last  generation.  The  energy, 
self-reliance  and  independence   of  the  American  race,  not 


24  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

only  developed  into  the  statesmanship  which  brought  about 
a  revolution,  and  a  final  separation  from,  and  independence 
of  the  mother  country,  but  it  prepared  a  people,  who  for  a 
century  and  a  half  had  governed  themselves  without  aid 
from  the  mother  country,  for  a  further  self-government, 
which  for  more  than  a  century  has  enabled  them  to  accom- 
plish the  American  Republic. 

In  1776,  the  population  of  the  thirteen  colonies  did  not 
exceed  three  millions.  They  were  all  east  of  the  Allegha- 
nies  and  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  A  few  skirmishes  and 
battles,  notable  among  them  Braddock's  defeat,  had  occurred 
on  the  neutral  ground  and  against  the  French  and  Indians 
near  Fort  Du  Quesne.  But  before  the  Revolution,  few 
English  settlements  had  extended  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 
Daniel  Boone,  a  North  Carolinian,  of  whom  Lord  Byron 
said: 

Of  all  men,  saving  Sylla  the  mansiayer, 

^\^lo  passes  for  in  life  and  death  most  lucky; 

Of  the  great  names  which  in  our  faces  stare, 

The  General  Boone,  backwoodsman  of  Kentucky, 

Was  happiest  amongst  mortals  anywhere : 
For  killing  nothing  but  a  bear  or  buck,  he 

Enjoy'd  the  lonely,  vigorous,  harmless  days 

Of  his  old  age  in  wilds  of  deepest  maze. 

Crime  came  not  near  him — she  is  not  the  child 
Of  solitude;  Health  shrank  not  from  him — for 

Her  home  is  in  the  rarely  trodden  w  ild, 

Where  if  men  seek  her  not,  and  death  be  more 

Their  choice  than  life,  forgive  them,  as  beguiled 
By  habit  to  what  their  own  hearts  abhor — 

In  cities  caged.     The  present  case  in  point  I 

Cite  is,  that  Boone  lived  hunting  up  to  ninety; 

And,  what's  slill  stranger,  left  behind  a  name 

For  wlilch  men  vainly  decimate  the  throng, 
Not  only  famous,  but  of  that  i^^ood  fame 

Without  which  glory's  but  a  tavern  song — 
Simple,  serene,  the  antipodes  of  shame, 

Which  hate  nor  envy  e'er  could  tinge  with  wrong: 
An  active  hennit,  even  in  age  the  child 
Of  nature,  or  the  Man  of  Ross  run  wild. 


PRELIMINARY    STATEMENT.  2$ 

'Tis  true  he  shrank  from  men,  even  of  his  nation: 

When  they  built  up  unto  his  darling  trees, 
He  moved  some  hundred  miles  off,  for  a  station 

Where  tliere  were  fewer  houses  and  more  ease. 
The  inconvenience  of  civilization 

Is,  that  you  neither  can  be  pleased  nor  please ; 
But  where  he  met  the  individual  man, 
He  show'd  himself  as  kind  as  mortal  can. 

He  was  not  all  alone ;  around  him  grew 

A  sylvan  tribe  of  children  of  the  chase, 
Whose  young,  unwaken'd  world  was  ever  new  : 

Nor  sword  nor  sorrow  yet  had  left  a  trace 
On  her  unwrinkled  brow,  nor  could  you  view 

A  frown  on  nature's  or  on  human  face ; 
The  free-bom  forest  found  and  kept  them  free. 
And  fresh  as  is  a  torrent  or  a  tree. 

And  tall,  and  strong,  and  swift  of  foot  were  they. 

Beyond  the  dwarfing  city's  pale  abortions, 
Because  their  thoughts  had  never  been  the  prey 

Of  care  or  gain :  the  green  woods  were  their  portions. 
No  sinking  spirits  told  them  they  grew  grey; 

No  fashion  made  them  apes  of  her  distortions  : 
Simple  they  were,  not  savage;  and  their  ritles. 
Though  very  true,  were  not  yet  used  for  trifles. 

Motion  was  in  their  days,  rest  in  their  slumbers, 
And  cheerfulness  the  handmaid  of  their  toil ; 

Nor  yet  too  many  nor  too  few  their  numbers ; 
Corruption  could  not  make  their  hearts  her  soil ; 

The  lust  which  stings,  the  splendor  which  encumbers, 
With  the  free  foresters  divide  no  spoil : 

Serene,  not  sullen,  were  the  solitudes 

Of  this  unsighing  people  of  the  woods, 

Had  in  his  wild  and  solitary  rambles,  penetrated  into 
Kentucky,  and  had  found  it  abundant  in  game  and  of  rich 
soil.  The  State  of  Tennessee  at  that  time  was  a  domain, 
belonging  to  a  private  monopoly.  For  these  territories  were 
unknown  land ;  except  a  few  hunters  and  occasional  forted 
settlements  with  few  families,  there  were  no  settlements  in 
these  now  flourishing  States.  Outside  of  these,  the  French 
had  a  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  River,  first 


26  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

made  at  Isle  aux  Vaisscaux,  or  Ship  Island,  and  then  made 
at  New  Orleans  for  the  sake  of  health,  and  beyond  these  till 
the  Spanish  settlements  in  Florida,  jMexico  and  Texas  were 
reached ;  the  French  out-post  at  Fort  Chartres  and  St. 
Louis,  a  few  settlements  around  it  at  Vide  Poche  and  St. 
Ferdinand,  and  others  then  belonging  to  France,  and  the 
Post  of  Arkansas,  there  were  none  of  the  present  United 
States  west  of  the  Appalachian  chain.  This  chain  of  Ameri- 
can settlements,  confined  substantially  to  tfie  narrow  slope  of 
the  Atlantic  seaboard,  was  the  germ  of  the  great  nation 
now  called  the  United  States.  But  the  hardihood  and  pri- 
vations of  nearly  two  centuries  had  trained  and  educated 
the  people  of  this  slope  to  a  fitness  for  the  autonomy  which 
was  to  devolve  on  them  and  their  descendants.  Nothing 
was  known  of  the  vast  region  beyond  and  to  the  Pacific 
shore,  except  such  rumors  or  reports  as  came  from  the 
nomadic  hunters  and  traders  who  had  strayed  off  into  the 
iiterminable  forests  and  plains  of  the  Great  West. 

After  the  struggle  for  independence,  and  up  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  three  new  States  were 
added  to  the  original  thirteen,  to-wit :  Kentucky,  by  act  of 
Congress  February  4th,  1791  ;  Vermont,  by  act  of  February 
i8th,  1791,  and  Tennessee,  by  act  of  June  ist,  1796.  Only 
two  States  lay  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  They  were  inhab- 
ited by  the  earlier  pioneers,  whose  enterprising  and  heroic 
spirit  had  led  them  beyond  the  Appalaches.  That  heroic 
spirit  had  in  every  age  of  the  world  characterized  the 
early  pioneers  of  every  country.  Hence  in  ancient  times, 
the  ancestors  of  every  heroic  race  and  nation  were  esteemed 
gods  and  demi-gods.  Hercules  was  a  hero  whose  prow- 
ess was  so  far  beyond  his  descendants'  conception,  that  he 
was  deified.  The  Nemean  forest  where  he  cut  the  club 
with  which  he  slew  the  lion,  gave  its  name  to  the  games 
ever  afterwards  celebrated  in  his  honor.  The  princes  and 
aristocracy  of  the  Grecian  States  traced  their  pedigree  to 
him,  and  called  themselves  the  Heraclida;.     The  virtues  of 


PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT.  2/ 

the  sturdy  races  in  the  earher  European  civilization,  who 
were  pioneers  beyond  the  cis-Adriatic,  and  the  cis-Mediter- 
ranean,  in  the  cis-Alpine  and  cis-Pyrenean  and  regions 
this  side  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  were  ever  celebrated  in 
the  songs  of  the  nations  which  sprang  from  them,  and 
which  revered,  honored  and  emulated  them.  These  virtues 
were  the  result  of  the  simplicity  of  their  lives,  the  constant 
presence  of  danger,  and  the  sagacity,  intrepidity  and  self- 
reliance  which  its  presence  and  the  necessity  of  supplying 
daily  wants  always  gives.  This,  which  we  might  call  the 
normal  state  of  society  in  the  hunter  and  shepherd  man, 
always  involved  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  from  the  fit- 
test essentially  a  race  of  heroes.  Unacquainted  with  the 
enervating  influences  of  luxury  and  vice,  the  manly  virtues 
of  courage  with  which  is  always  mixed  magnanimity  and 
hospitality,  were  developed.  Their  descendants  became,  as 
civilization  in  its  progress  westward  multiplied,  superior  to 
their  effete  ancestors,  from  whom  each  in  seeking  the  com- 
munion of  nature  rather  than  man,  "  when  they  built  up  into 
his  darling  trees,  "  moved  on  where  he  found  "less  people 
and  more  ease." 

This  phase  of  American  society  translated  to  the  regions 
west  of  the  Alleghanies  the  young  life  and  vigor  of  the 
Atlantic  slope.  There  came  to  Kentucky  a  young  man, 
Henry  Clay,  who  impressed  the  country  with  his  genius, 
statesmanship  and  unrivalled  eloquence ;  senates  hung 
upon  his  lips,  and  nations  listened  to  the  tones  of  his  ora- 
tor}'. Then  came  Audubon,  who  lived  in  the  forests  and 
wrote  the  autobiography  of  the  birds.  From  the  Carolinas 
came  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson,  who  was  distinguished  alike 
as  jurist,  soldier,  magistrate  and  statesman.  The  two  new 
States  which  alone  existed  west  of  the  Alleghanies  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  nurtured  and  pro- 
duced Benton  and  Lincoln,  Andrew  Johnson  and  Sam 
Houston.  With  few  facilities  for  education  in  the  way  of 
schools,  the   primitive  forest  produced  scholars,  statesmen, 


28  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

naturalists,  scientists  and  geographers.  They  illustrated  the 
natural  aptitude  of  the  American  for  war,  not  of  conquest, 
but  war  for  the  preservation  of  peace  and  the  law  and  order 
requisite  for  the  well-being  of  society  ;  war  which  enriched 
science  with  the  fruits  of  explorations  and  opened  the  ave- 
nues of  commerce  and  trade.  The  sturdy  Kentuckians 
followed  George  Rodgers  Clark  into  the  Northwestern  Ter- 
ritory where  he  defeated  the  Indians  at  Vincennes ;  and 
many  hard-fought  and  bloody  scenes  were  enacted  on  the 
dark  and  bloody  ground,  under  the  pioneer  soldiers,  who 
were  necessitated  to  defend  their  plow-shares  with  the 
sword  and  rifle.  With  this  aptitude  for  war,  a  war  in  which 
both  the  spear  and  the  pruning  hook,  the  sword  and  plow- 
share, were  intermingled,  there  was  developed  in  the 
American  pioneer  and  squatter,  a  patriotism  which  was 
compounded  of  love  of  country  and  fearless  love  of  jus- 
tice. These  two  virtues  combined  gave  to  the  American 
citizen-soldier  a  capacity  for  self-government,  and  placed 
his  nation  above  all  peoples  in  the  sublime  autonomy 
which  in  the  last  three-quarters  of  a  century  has  been  illus- 
trated in  the  most  trying  ordeals  a  country  was  ever 
exposed  to,  and  has  placed  America  in  the  first  rank  of  all 
nations.  The  autonomy  of  America  has  been  demonstrated 
not  alone  in  times  of  peril  and  conflict,  but  in  that  more 
dangerous  phase  of  national  life,  in  peace,  the  peace  which 
immediately  succeeds  internecine,  devastating  and  bloody 
war.  The  question  of  battles  between  skilled  captains  is 
often,  as  Napoleon  said,  solely  dependent  on  the  weight  of 
the  artillery.  The  question  of  peace  after  a  long  and  deso- 
liting  war,  is  more  trying  to  the  autononi}'  of  a  people  than 
the  determination  of  bloody  battles.  Nothing  else  than 
the  inherent  love  of  order,  respect  for  law,  and  the  vigor- 
ous patriotism  and  love  of  justice  engendered  by  the  earh- 
lessons  of  the  pioneers,  could  have  carried  the  United 
States  through  the  perils  of  ''reconstruction  " — greater  perils 
than    the   five  preceding   years  of  battles   and    bloodshed 


PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT.  29 

that  had  only  made  reconstruction  possible  but  not  neces- 
sarily probable. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century  the  railroad,  the  tele- 
graph and  the  steamboat  were  unknown,  the  most  painful 
journeys  were  necessary  in  traversing  the  wildernesses,  and 
the  means  of  inter-communication  were  slow ;  and  the 
settlements  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  deriving  but  little  pro- 
tection from  the  sparse  and  meagre  army,  were  compelled 
to  vigilance  and  organization  necessary  to  their  own 
protection.  It  was  in  this  phase  of  society,  and  in  the 
newest  of  the  States,  in  the  first  year  of  this  eventful  cen- 
tury, seventy-eight  years  of  which  have  passed  away,  that 
General  William  Selby  Harney  was  born.  The  scope  of 
his  life  has  compassed  in  three-quarters  of  a  century  the 
most  remarkable  events  of  our  American  history.  The 
population  has  increased  from  three  millions  to  forty-five 
millions.  At  the  time  of  his  birth  all  the  great  West  from 
Florida  to  the  Great  Lakes,  the  Great  Valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, the  Valley  of  the  Missouri,  and  all  the  then  Louisi- 
ana, was  the  property  of  Spain  and  France.  Texas,  with 
an  undefined  eastern  boundary,  was  a  part  of  Mexico  and 
continued  so  till  1836.  Florida  was  not  purchased  until 
after  the  war  of  1812,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  had  only  said 
in  1 80 1  that  no  foreign  power  could  own  the  port  of 
New  Orleans  without  being  "  the  natural  enemy  of  the 
United  States. "  In  short,  outside  of  the  new  States  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  the 
United  States  hardly  extended  west  of  those  mountains. 
All  the  great  West,  including  now  the  major  part  in  popula- 
tion, wealth  and  importance  of  our  nation,  was  unknown  ex- 
cept by  dim  tradition.  France  owned  Louisiana,  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  the  sagacity  to  purchase  in  1803.  The 
Northwest  Territory,  which  now  includes  Ohio,  Indiana, 
a  part  of  Illinois  and  all  the  States  between  the  Ohio 
River  and  the  great  lakes,  belonged  to  the  great  State  of 
Virginia,   which  ceded  them   to    the  United   States,    upon 


30  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

only  one  condition,  to-wit:  that  '"  SU..cry  and  involuntary 
servitude,  except  as  a  punisliment  for  crime  after  due  convic- 
tion, should  never  bf'  tolerated  in  them.  " 

It  was  not  till  after  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  that  St. 
Louis  became  a  part  of  the  United  States.  It  was  not  till 
1804-6  that  Merriwether  Lewis  and  William  Clark  made 
their  expedition  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  route  to  the 
Pacific  lay  across  trackless  forests  and  sterile  plains.  The 
desert — called  the  "  Great  American  "  in  the  earlier  geog- 
raphies— inhabited  like  Central  Africa  only  with  nomadic 
hordes  of  wild  buffalo  and  wilder  savages,  lay  between  the 
French  settlements  of  Saint  Louis,  Fort  Chartres  and 
Kaskaskia  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  California  was 
then  a  province  cf  Spain  and  part  of  Mexico.  The 
almost  undescribed,  unknown  and  supposed  unknowable 
slope  of  the  watershed  of  the  Cordilleras  to  the  west, 
on  the  Columbia  in  Oregon,  was  the  object  of  their 
research.  Wild  tribes  of  savages,  unknown  except  to  the 
intrepid  Missionaries  of  the  Jesuit  and  Franciscan  fathers, 
who  had  carried  the  cross  and  the  gospel  to  the  sons  of  the 
forest,  were  the  only  human  inhabitants  of  the  greater  por- 
tion of  now  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  United  States. 
Flatboats  and  keels,  more  often  canoes,  were  the  only 
means  of  the  navigation  of  the  great  rivers  which  have 
since  been  plowed  by  the  proud  steamer.  The  forest  and 
prairies  were  trackless  and  innocent  of  road  or  path, 
except  where  the  wild  natives  or  the  practiced  woodman 
steered  by  the  bark  of  the  forest  trees,  or  the  sunflower  of 
the  prairie,  Nature  indicating  by  her  deciduous  or  other 
plants,  to  their  practiced  eyes,  the  cardinal  points  of  the 
compass. 

The  great  mines  of  precious  metals  were  unknown.  De 
Soto  and  his  followers  had  heard  of  them  in  1541,  and  had 
even  penetrated  to  the  sources  of  the  Arkansas,  to  the 
Parks  and  Pike's  Peak,  and  studied  the  watershed  of  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras,  where  Gilpin,  three  centuries 


PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT.  3I 

afterward, .  verified  the  statements  of  the  Portuguese  gen- 
tleman and  Garcillasso.  The  mines  of  CaHfornia  were  un- 
heard of,  and  the  placers  of  Oregon,  Montana  and  Dakota 
were  undreamed  of. 

It  was  not  till  three  years  after  his  birth  that  Lewis 
and  Clark,  as  we  have  said,  passed  through  the  American 
desert,  which  is  now  blossoming  as  the  rose.  It  was  several 
more  years  before  Captain  Bonneville  spent  two  years  in 
captivity  among  the  Nomadic  Indians,  and  returned  like 
"the  dead  come  to  life,"  to  give  the  world  an  account  of 
his  journeyings,  which  employed  the  pen  of  Washington 
Irving,  and  in  which  truth  is  shown  to  be  stranger  than 
fiction.  The  city  of  St.  Louis  was  a  French  village  where 
the  fur  trader  and  voyageur  exchanged  the  products  of  their 
traps  and  hunts  for  the  necessary  commodities  to  subsist 
upon  and  defend  them  in  their  solitary  season  in  the  remote 
and  unpeopled  forest.  There  was  no  money  in  St.  Louis  ex- 
cept the  Spanish  dollars  paid  to  the  garrison  of  sixteen  men 
once  a  year,  and  the  currency,  as  related  by  ]\I.  Perrin  Du 
Lac,  who  visited  the  upper  French  settlements  in  1803, 
was  deer  skins  and  peltries.  The  records  and  archives  of 
our  city  show  that  judicial  sales  at  this  early  day  took  place 
on  Sundays,  in  front  of  the  only  Roman  Catholic  church, 
just  after  high  mass,  and  as  the  congregation  of  worship- 
pers passed  out,  and  after  due  proclamation  made  for  three 
successive  Sundays.  The  specific  manner  of  payment  was 
not  in  money,  but  in  shaved  deer  skins  or  their  equivalent 
in  other  peltries.  The  pirogue,  or  the  flatboat,  was  the 
only  craft  with  which  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  were  navigated.  The  railroad  had  not  even  been 
dreamed  of.  for  the  first  one  was  only  built  in  the  United 
States  in  1831.  Fulton  had  only  made  a  trial  trip  of  his 
steamboat  on  the  Hudson ;  and  Whitney  was  dreaming 
only,  if  thought  of  at  all,  of  the  cotton  gin  which  gave  his 
country  a  monopoly  of  the  supply  of  that  fibre  with  which 
the  world  is  now  clothed. 


32  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

The  life  of  General  Harney  compasses  the  period  of  the 
progress  of  the  larger  half  of  the  Western  Continent  from 
the  most  feeble  infancy  to  its  present  young  manhood.  En- 
tering the  army  at  eighteen  years  of  age,  his  career  as  a 
soldier  began  in  his  youth,  and  in  the  youth  of  the  nation 
he  has  so  well,  so  honorably,  and  so  patriotically  served. 
The  life  of  a  soldier  demands  the  perfection  of  manhood, 
physical,  mental  and  moral.  It  is  a  life  of  discipline  and 
trial ;  a  life  of  honor  and  duty  which  demands  all  the  higher 
and  nobler  virtues,  patriotism,  courage — moral  and  physic- 
al— truth,  integrity  and  unflinching  honesty.  It  is  a  life 
that  foregoes  the  sordid  aims  of  petty  ambition,  and  de- 
velopes  into  the 

"Big  thoughts  that  make  ambition  virtue." 

It  exists  outside  the  sphere  of  paltry  commerce,  and 
in  the  atmosphere  of  honor.  Honor  won  and  wooed 
in  peril  and  privation  ;  honor  at  the  price  of  self-denial  and 
hardship ;  honor  that  is  cold  to  the  fascinations  of  vulgar 
profit,  and  insensible  to  all  but  the  call  of  humanity,  charity 
and  duty;  honor  ever  magnanimous,  because  ever  brave; 
ever  generous,  because  ever  just;  honor  more  precious 
than  all  gems,  and  above  all  price. 

This  biography  covers  a  space  in  our  national  life  which 
can  alone  be  preserved  by  the  cotemporary  biographer,  but 
to  which  a  just  and  impartial  posterity  can  only  do  justice 
and  appreciate. 

Montesquieu,  in  his  celebrated  treatise  on  the  Grandeur 
des  Romains,  maintains  that  those  governments  which  are 
purely  military  or  purely  commercial,  are  less  lasting  and 
prosperous  than  those  which  are  of  a  mixed  character, 
combining  the  excellences  of  the  arts  of  peace  with  the 
highest  perfection  of  the  art  of  war ;  that  acquisitions  to 
be  permanent  must  be  made  through  the  industry  of  pro- 
duction and  traffic;  but  that  the  office  of  the  soldier  is 
the  bulwark  of  the  nation,  and    defender  of    its    liberties 


PRELIMINARY  STATEMENT.  33 

and  rights  as  well  as  commerce.  Gibbon,  in  his  "  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  attributes  to  the  Emperor 
Gratian,  whose  indolence  and  luxury  introduced  themselves 
into  the  armies  in  Gaul,  so  that  the  soldiers  were  impatient 
of  the  burden  and  weight  of  their  armor,  the  unenviable  dis- 
tinction of  having  hastened  and  precipitated  the  ruin  of 
his  country,  by  relaxing  discipline,  which  immediately  made 
his  soldiers  pusillanimous  and  inefficient  before  the  sturdy 
marauders,  the  Goths,  the  Huns  and  the  Northern  hordes. 
The  army  of  the  United  States  has  produced  the  finest 
specimens  of  manhood,  physical,  moral  and  mental.  The 
high  standard  of  honor  and  integrity,  and  the  esprit  dti 
corps  of  the  professional  and  educated  soldier,  place  him 
first  in  rank  and  importance  of  citizens,  so  that  the  life  of 
one  who  has  sustained  his  country's  colors  for  more  than 
sixty  years,  is  of  importance  for  example  to  the  rising 
generation. 

The  life  labors  of  Gen.  Harney  almost  partake  of  those 
of  a  warm-hearted  and  zealous  patriarch.  His  service  on 
the  frontier  in  Florida,  and  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  INIissouri  Rivers,  and  upon  the  Pacific  slope, 
has  been  one  constant  labor  to  remove  impediments  to  the 
westward  march  of  American  civilization  across  the  conti- 
nent. 

At  his  birth  our  national  population  numbered  but  little 
more  than  5,000,000;  he  has  seen  it  grow  to  more  than 
40,000,000.  At  his  birth  sixteen  States  belonged  to  the 
Federal  family ;  he  has  seen  the  number  increase  to  thirty- 
eight. 

He  has  seen  eleven  Roman  lustra  pass  away  since  he 
stepped  upon  the  stage  of  action.  Impelled  by  an  all-pow- 
erful spirit  of  conquest,  he  has  seen  the  wilderness  and 
savageism  yield  to  the  march  of  skill,  refinement,  and  power 
across  the  continent.  He  has  seen  the  red  man  of  the  wil- 
derness, the  children  of  the  kingdom  of  Hiawatha,  strike 
their  tents  and  depart   for  happier  hunting  grounds,  that 


34  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

lay  toward  the  setting  sun.  Wonderful  was  the  panorama 
of  history  that  slowly,  majestically  and  irresistibly  moved 
along  the  years  that  have  measured  away  his  life.  The  old 
war  chiefs  of  his  youth  and  of  his  manhood  are  all  gone, 
and  the  melancholy  story  of  the  Indian  maiden  remains  to 
be  typified  in  the  still  more  ancient  story  of  the  daughters 
of  Israel,  "  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  there  we  sat  down ; 
yea,  we  wept  when  we  remembered  Zion,  we  hung  our 
harps  upon  the  willows  in  the  midst  thereof." 

General  Harney  has  seen  the  wigwam  of  the  Indian,  in 
the  wilderness,  give  place  to  the  log  cabin  of  the  pioneer,  on 
the  frontier,  and  in  turn  he  has  seen  the  log  cabin  give  place 
to  the  stately  mansion  of  the  farmer,  the  artisan,  the  mer- 
chant and  the  teacher.  His  history  is,  therefore,  the  history 
of  the  steady,  solemn  march  of  the  Indians  from  the  begin- 
ning-of  the  present  century  to  the  abolition  of  American 
slavery,  from  the  active  wild  scenes  of  life  to  the  written 
pages  of  by-gone  history. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL  HARNEY's  YOUTH. 

¥HE  Commonwealth  of  Tennessee,  the  youngest  of  the 
States  of  the  Union  at  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
was  the  birth-place  of  General  William  Selby  Har- 
ney. He  was  born  at  Haysborough,  in  Davidson  county, 
near  Nashville,  August  22nd,  1800.  It  was  at  a  time  when 
the  State  was  in  its  infancy,  but  even  at  that  early  day  giv- 
ing good  promise  of  its  later  destiny.  This  frontier  State 
had  attracted  to  its  then  native  wilds  some  of  the  ablest, 
most  daring  and  patriotic  spirits  of  the  older  States,  and 
who  have  since  given  lustre  to  American  history,  in  war 
and  in  peace,  in  statesmanship  and  learning,  in  commerce 
and  industry,  in  virtue  and  patriotism.  The  stirring  scenes 
of  the  Revolutionary  war  had,  in  the  seven  years  before 
the  treaty  of  peace,  habituated  the  hardy  youth  and  ster- 
ling manhood  of  the  patriot  soldier  to  scenes  of  danger 
and  habits  of  self-reliance ;  to  patience  in  disaster  and  en- 
durance of  privation.  Lying  midway  between  the  sparse 
trans-AUeghany  settlements  on  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Ohio,  and  the  French  settlements  at  New  Orleans,  it  was  a 
place  of  transit  for  the  hardy  flat  and  keel  boatmen  who 
descended  but  could  not  ascend  the  beautiful  Ohio  and  the 
Father  of  Waters  in  their  clumsy  craft,  and  who  must  per- 
force return  by  painful  journeys  overland  through  the  Wil- 
derness, as  it  was  then  called.  This  wilderness  was  infested 
by  tribes  of  savage  aborigines  and  some  times  the  more 
savage  white  outlaw.  If  the  caves  and  forests  on  either 
side  of  the  river  were  infested  by  river  pirates,  the  harpies 
and  others,  the  land  was  equally  infested  with  land  rob- 
bers to  rob  and  murder  the  early  trader  and  voyageur,  when, 


T,6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

laden  with  the  proceeds  of  his  trip,  he  wended  his  painful 
way  homeward.  Nashville,  at  that  time,  was  an  out-post 
of  civilization.  It  was  a  city  of  refuge  and  hospitality,  fur- 
nishing a  secure  asylum  for  the  weary  traveler  returning 
to  his  home  in  Kentucky,  or  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Ohio, 
where  he  might  rest  in  security  and  recruit  his  strength  for 
the  yet  long  and  painful  journey  before  him.  Few  who  travel 
through  this  enterprising  and  populous  State,  at  the  present 
day  so  prosperous  in  art  and  agriculture,  so  full  of  refined 
elegance,  and  enjoying  so  large  a  portion  of  the  benefits  of 
commerce  and  civilization ; — few  who  visit  this  now  beau^- 
ful  city  with  its  elegant  buildings,  its  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, its  cultivated  and  wealthy  population,  still  hospitable, 
chivalrous  and  refined, — can  realize  that  within  the  space 
of  one  life,  the  commonwealth  has  grown  from  a  frontier  to 
an  empire,  and  that  Nashville  has,  from  a  village,  developed 
into  one  of  the  most  beautiful  capitals  of  the  South. 

The  Hermitage  was  near  the  place  of  young  Harney's 
birth  when  Judge,  afterwards  General  and  President  An- 
drew Jackson  established  his  abode  there.  A  man  of 
nature  and  of  the  people.  General  Jackson  proved  to  be 
the  man  who  was  endowed  by  nature  with  the  highest  quali- 
ties of  mind  and  soul.  He  combined  in  himself  the  advo- 
cate, judge,  soldier  and  magistrate,  fated  and  fitted  to  be 
a  ruler  in  times  of  political  trial, — to  serve  and  save  his 
country  in  the  cabinet,  as  well  as  to  defend  it  in  the 
field. 

Attracted  to  this  out-post  of  civilization,  many  ex-officers 
of  the  Revolution  came  with  their  families  and  slaves.  The 
hardy  emigrants  were  accompanied  and  followed  by  adven- 
turous and  ambitious  young  men  who  learned,  in  a  rough 
and  chivalrous  school,  what  books  and  effete  habits  of  older 
civilizations  could  never  have  taught  them.  Thomas  H. 
Benton,  afterwards  Senator  from  Missouri  for  thirty  years, 
with  his  brother  Jesse,  settled  at  Nashville ;  and  many 
names  since  illustrious  in  parliamentary  and  military  history 


^n- utVi^ FostesstoTL  cfJomtHtan.  Hunt £s4/ 


m 


HARNEY  S  YOUTH.  3/ 

were  the  pioneers  of  the   primitive   State  along  with  the 
ancestors  of  General  Harney. 

It  was  a  phase  of  human  society  reminding  one  of  what 
the  ancients  called  the  "age  of  gold,"  which,  even  in  this 
early  day,  seems  to  us  almost  fabulous.  There  are  few  liv- 
ing, and  at  an  early  day  in  the  future  there  will  be  none, 
who  personally  remember  the  simple  yet  just,  truthful,  hon- 
est and  brave  habits  of  the  early  pioneer.  It  will  be  due 
to  Bingham's  painting  of  the  "Jolly  Flatboatmcn,"  perhaps, 
that  posterity  will  know  the  personal  habits  of  the  early 
navigators  of  our  inland  waters.  It  will  be  to  the  books  of 
Timothy  Flint,  and  other  unpretentious  authors,  that  the 
next  generation  will  be  indebted  for  a  knowledge  of  the 
habits  and  character  of  the  early  squatter,  signalized  by 
rough  but  honest  manhood  and  distinguished  by  sagacity, 
wit  and  intelligence — learning,  the  learning  of  nature  and 
experience.  Davy  Crockett,  the  child  of  the  frontier,  the 
hunter  and  squatter,  the  simple-minded  wag,  whose  humor 
has  traditionally  delighted  two  generations ;  whose  wisdom 
and  ability,  while  homely,  were  characterized  by  a  depth 
of  practical  knowledge  and  sound  sense,  that  sustained  him 
in  reputation  and  respect,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  in  the 
most  polished  era  of  our  Congressional  history,  was  a 
representative  man  of  the  early  Tennesseeans;  while  Boone 
and  Harrod  were  alike  products  of  the  earlier  Common- 
wealth of  Kentucky.  It  was  Crockett,  who,  like  Boone,  had 
"moved  off  to  where  there  were  fewer  neighbors  and  more 
ease,"  who  closed  his  honest  and  eventful  career  at  the 
Alamo,  winning  the  independence  of  Texas.  He  was  fight- 
ing under  the  orders  of  his  old  friend,  Sam  Houston,  of 
Tennessee,  ex-Senator  of  the  United  States,  like  himself 
a  child  of  nature  and  the  forest,  and  one  of  the  hardy 
pioneers. 

Their  habits  were  formed  in  the  camp  and  in  the  forests ; 
and  their  sense  of  justice  was  never  blunted  by  those  hab- 
its of  guile  which  the  complex  relations  of  purely  commer- 


38  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

cial  communities  engender.  They  were  sensitive  to  insult, 
and  summary  in  their  manner  of  settlement  of  all  quarrels. 
The  duello  was  a  code  recognized  among  them,  and  to  which 
they  often  resorted  ;  a  code  not  recognized  by  the  law,  but 
seldom  punished  by  the  civil  authorities,  so  strong  was  the 
influence  of  public  opinion.  An  instance  of  this  is  shown 
in  the  hospitable  treatment  of  Aaron  Burr,  who  visited 
Nashville  in  1804,  after  his  fatal  duel  with  Plamilton.  An 
outlaw  from  society  in  his  own  State,  he  became  the  pet 
and  hero'  of  the  Nashville  world.  The  learned  editor  of 
FroissarcVs  Chronicles,  in  his  preliminar>'  essay,  says  the 
duello,  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  was  the  foundation  and  source 
of  the  amenities  and  courtesies  of  modern  Europe.  The 
certainty  of  personal  responsibility  for  wrong  by  word  or 
deed  closed  the  lips  of  the  slanderer  in  social  intercourse, 
and  checked  the  impulse  of  dishonesty  in  business  transac- 
tions. It  is  perhaps  due  to  this  that  the  chivalrous  courtesy 
of  the  South  and  high-bred  respect  for  woman  and  the  weak 
and  unfortunate  still  characterize  the  descendants  of  the 
early  squatters  of  that  region. 

It  would  be  hard  to  note  all  the  distinguished  men  and 
women  who  were  the  early  settlers  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Tennessee  cotemporary  with  the  times  we  are  describing, 
and  of  those  who,  like  General  Harney,  are  descended  from 
them.  First  among  the  remarkable  women,  we  should  men- 
tion Rachel,  the  wife  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  of  whom 
the  rare  virtues,  domestic  and  public,  displayed  in  a  life, 
not  witiiout  its  clouds  of  sorrow  and  adversities,  always 
rose  with  the  occasion,  and  even  retained  of  that  stern, 
severe,  just,  honest  and  brave  man,  the  meed  of  esteem 
and  affection,  and  after  her  death,  the  continued  reverence 
of  her  memory.  There  was  Mrs.  Yeatman,  the  wife  of  the 
late  Hon.  John  Bell,  whom  she  married  for  her  second 
husband,  but  who  in  her  early  widowhood  displayed  a 
capacity  for  business,  which  in  those  early  times  was 
demanded    by  the  exigencies    of  her  situation,   managing 


HARNEY  S  YOUTH.  39 

her  deceased  husband's  affairs  as  a  banker,  with  a  sagacity 
pecuharly  mascu'"  ^e,  at  the  same  time  performing  the 
maternal  affairs  of  the  true  woman  and  mother. 

General  Harney's  father,  whose  name  was  Thomas,  was 
born  in  Maryland.  He  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier  and 
of  English  descent,  having  sprung  from  a  Bedfordshire 
family.  He  was  a  Major  in  the  Revolutior  v  war,  which 
title  he  bore  till  his  death,  and  was  a  man  oi  unusual  per- 
sonal excellence.  His  character,  the  outgrowth  of  a  strong 
individuality,  was  conspicuous  in  the  community  where 
he  lived,  and  his  influence  was  felt  in  every  effort  to  mold 
society  and  build  up  institutions  for  the  public  good.  A 
single  incident  which  contributes  to  his  public  worth  is 
told  of  him  as  a  part  of  his  efficient  service  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary war.  When  the  American  forces  had  arrived  at 
Princeton  Ford,  where  the  British  were  in  camp  on  the  other 
side,  they  soon  learned  there  was  no  way  to  cross  the 
stream  and  steal  upon  the  enemy,  who  were,  as  they  sup- 
posed, securely  quartered.  Comprehending  the  situation 
in  a  moment,  Major  Harney  requested  a  comrade  to  go  with 
him,  and  together  they  swam  the  river,  took  the  enemy's 
boats  and  returned  to  their  own  camp,  with  the  means  of 
transportation  across  the  river.  The  American  soldiers 
embarked  and  were  soon  landed  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  stream,  some  distance  below,  and  without  loss  of  time 
surprised  the  enemy  whom  they  defeated  and  captured. 

Though  possessed  of  traits  of  strong  individuality,  he 
was  not  ambitious  or  presuming  in  his  relations  and  con- 
duct with  his  fellows.  For,  though  often  called  upon  to 
band  together  with  the  early  settlers  for  protection  against 
the  Indians,  and  often  compelled  to  fight  them,  Major  Har- 
ney would  never  accept  an  official  position,  however 
strongly  solicited,  but  would  readily  go  into  the  ranks  and 
peril  his  life  with  his  neighbors. 

Haysborough,  where  Major  Harney  settled  and  lived  in 
Tennessee,  was,  up  to   the  time  of  the  Major's  death,  the 


40  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

rival  of  Nashville.  Upon  the  death  of  the  Major  the  con- 
test was  ended  and  the  blood  of  an  illustrious  sire  was 
fated  to  seek  distinction  in  other  and  distant  fields  of  duty. 
Major  Thomas  Harney  married  Margaret  Hudson,  a 
woman  of  great  virtue  and  intelligence,  and  a  descendant 
of  an  Irish  family  of  distinction  and  merit.  She,  too,  like 
other  women  of  the  frontier  and  the  West,  was  possessed  of 
strong  traits  of  character,  a  woman  of  high  bearing  who 
could  well  boast,  with  Cornelia,  that  her  sons  were  her 
jewels;  for  her  children  were 

*'  Such  as  the  Doric  mothers  bore." 

Her  strength  of  character  is  well  illustrated  in  the  many 
labors  of  life.  It  was  the  custom  in  the  early  days  of  Ten- 
nessee for  the  settlers  to  build  picket  fences  inside  of  which 
to  escape  when  the  Indians  came  in  too  great  force.  Imme- 
diately upon  entering  it  was  the  duty  of  the  women  to 
make  the  bullets  for  the  men  to  use  during  the  siege.  '  At 
one  time  the  alarm  of  the  approach  of  the  hostile  Indians 
was  given,  and  the  settlers  all  fled  within  the  picket  fence. 
On  this  occasion  a  woman  well  known  for  her  excellencies 
was  chosen  to  make  bullets,  but  it  was  soon  discovered 
that  she  was  spilling  the  lead.  Mrs.  Harney,  seeing  this, 
requested  to  do  the  work  herself  It  was  given  to  her,  and 
she  made  the  bullets  without  manifesting  the  least  uneasi- 
ness, and  conducted  herself  as  though  nothing  concerned 
her  whatever,  although  a  brisk  fight  was  progressing. 

On  another  occasion  her  son  James  was  engaged  in  a 
fight  with  a  man  much  his  superior  in  physical  strength, 
and  armed  with  a  bowie-knife  with  which  he  had  already 
once  CL. :  Harney's  hand.  Mrs.  Harney  on  seeing  the  con- 
test, and  the  bowie-knife  in  the  hand  of  the  man  of  greater 
strength,  went  immediately  to  the  scene  of  action,  and 
denounced  the  man  as  a  coward  for  using  the  knife,  and 
demanded  him  to  surrender  it  to  her,  which  he  did  at  once. 

The  experience  of  this  act  well  demonstrates  the  con- 


HARNEY  S  YOUTH.  4I 

quering  power  of  a  heroic  woman,  as  well  as  it  testifies  of 
the  strong  character  of  the  brave  women  who  have,  in  all 
the  years  of  the  past,  made  illustrious  the  life  of  the  pioneer 
by  deeds  of  self-reliance  and  valor. 

Immigrating  into  Tennessee,  Mr.  Harney  settled  in  Da- 
vidson county,  where  he  became  well  known  and  was  held 
in  great  respect.  He  engaged  in  business  as  a  merchant  at 
first,  and  subsequently  devoted  himself  to  the  business  of 
land  surveying,  a  profession  of  which  there  was  at  that 
time  much  need  and  which  few  were  competent  to  fill. 

The  fruits  of  the  marriage  of  Thomas  Harney  and  Mar- 
garet Hudson  were  eight  children,  two  daughters  and  six 
sons,  of  whom  the  General  was  the  youngest.  His  brothers 
and  sisters  were  Benjamin  F.,  the  eldest,  John  Milton, 
James  Thompson,  Robert  Burns,  Eliza,  Margaret  and 
Thomas,  born  in  the  order  named.  The  two  eldest  were 
physicians,  and  Benjamin  was  a  surgeon  in  the  United 
States  army,  serving  in  the  Indian  and  Mexican  wars. 

Dr.  Benjamin  F.  Harney,  the  eldest  and  most  noted 
brother  of  the  General,  was  in  the  highest  sense  a  remark- 
able man,  both  in  private  and  public  life.  He  first  studied 
medicine  under  Dr.  Robinson,  an  eminent  physician  of 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  and  graduated  in  Philadelphia. 
After  spending  a  number  of  yeai's  in  the  practice,  he 
entered  the  army  as  a  surgeon,  and  distinguished  himself 
in  the  Black  Hawk,  Florida  and  IMexican  wars.  As  a  sur- 
geon he  had  no  superior  in  his  field  of  duty,  and  always 
won  the  honors  of  true  manhood  and  was  respected  and 
esteemed  wherever  known. 

John  ]\Iilton  Harney,  also  a  physician,  studied  and 
graduated  in  medicine  in  Philadelphia.  He,  too,  was  both 
remarkable  and  peculiar ;  a  man  of  rare  genius  and  a 
temperament  that  nature  had  touched,  as  she  touched 
Keats  and  Kirk  White.  Having  graduated  he  returned  to 
Kentucky  and  began  the  practice  of  medicine,  which  he 
followed  for  some  years  with  great  success.     He  gave  some 


42  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  his  time  to  literature  and  wrote  a  noted    poem    called 

"Crystallina."       His    heart,    like  that   of   a  woman,  was  a 

romance,  and  its  master  chord  was  love.      He  was  blessed 

with  a  happy  family,  but  his  wife  died,  and  he  went  about 

"  Like  some  wounded  bird 

With  but  one  unbroken  wing  to  soar  upon." 

The  death  of  his  wife  inflicted  upon  his  heart  a  wound  of  an 
incurable  character.  At  her  death  he  abandoned  the  home 
of  his  love  and  left  the  children  of  his  household,  and 
sought  heart  relief  in  other  scenes  of  life,  in  other  fields 
of  duty.  He  went  to  New  York  City  and  secured  a  posi- 
tion on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Neiv  York  Enqidrer,  where 
he  remained  for  some  time.  But  the  dream  of  happier 
days  and  fairer  times  still  haunted  his  mind  like  a  fairy 
phantom.  He  thought  of  the  new  grave  of  his  wife  upon 
the  green  hills  of  Kentucky  and  the  lonely  pathway  she 
walked  down  into  the  tomb,  and  he  decided  tp  abandon 
his  native  land. 

A  privateer  was  fitting  out  in  New  York  harbor  for 
Buenos  Ayres,  and  he  secured  on  her  the  situation  of  sur- 
geon.    He  embarked  upon  the  ship  and  departed, 

"From  lands  of  snow  to  lands  of  sun." 

Off  the  coast  of  Georgia  the  crew  of  the  ship  mutinied 
and  Dr.  Harney,  in  that  brief  time  learning  that  there  was  a 
wid  ^  '''fference  between  the  life  of  a  privateer  and  that  of 
a  law  abiding  citizen,  took  advantage  of  the  strife  among 
the  crew  and  persuaded  them  to  go  to  Savannah,  Georgia. 
Arriving  at  Savannah,  and  putting  his  feet  again  upon  his 
native  soil,  he  determined  to  live  and  die  among  his  own 
people.  He  soon  started  the  Savannali  Georgian,  and  con- 
ducted it  with  great  success  for  a  number  of  years. 

His  health  failed  him,  and  the  death  of  his  wife  still 
preying  upon  his  mind,  he  decided  to  go  back  to  Bards- 
town,  Kentucky,  and  die,  and  go  down  into  the  tomb  and 
rest  by  the  side  of  his  wife  till  the  Judgment  Day.  Soon 
after  he   returned  to  Kentucky  he  was  solicited   by  some 


HARNEY  S  YOUTH.  43 

Catholic  priests  to  embrace  the  CathoHc  rehgion.  He 
decided  to  do  so,  and  seek  an  asylum  for  his  broken  heart 
and  disconsolate  and  weary  mind  in  that  mysterious  and 
all-consoling  Mother  Church.  Dr.  Harney  embraced  the 
Catholic  Church  and  its  religion  as  a  refuge  from  the  tem- 
pes-  and  the  storm  of  his  mind.  He  not  only  embraced 
the  Catholic  faith,  but  was  ordained  a  priest,  at  a  small 
place  some  fifteen  miles  from  Bardstown.  This,  however, 
did  not  bring  consolation  to  a  soul  wrecked  on  the  voyage 
of  time.  No  creed  or  gown  could  hush  and  console  the 
troubled  heart,  for 

"The  soul  uneasy  and  confined  from  home, 
Rest    and  expatiates  in  a  life  to  come." 

■  The  woman  of  his  faith  and  heart  had  "  crossed  to  the 
hills  beyond,"  and  Dr.  Harney  had  but  just  taken  the  black 
robe  of  the  priest  when  "  death  touched  his  tired  heart," 
and  he  joined  hands  on  the  other  side  with  her  who  had 
gone  before. 

The  family  of  General  Harney  were  related  in  England 
to  the  Selbys  and  other  noble  and  knightly  families,  while 
on  his  mother's  side  they  were  related  to  the  Fitzgeralds, 
one  of  whom.  Lord  Edward,  suffered  with  Robert  Emmet 
the  extreme  penalty  of  unfortunate  patriotism. 

At  an  early  age,  profiting  by  early  instruction  at  home, 
young  Harney  attended  the  common  schools  which  the 
country  then  afforded.  He  was  next  sent,  in  18 14,  to  an 
academy  conducted  by  Professor  Craighead,  at  Haysbor- 
ough,  Tennessee.  While  at  this  school  a  gentleman  named 
Jennison,  from  Boston,  came  to  Tennessee,  and  stopped  in 
the  Harney  village,  and  Mrs.  Harney,  desiring  her  son 
should  become  a  sailor  and  enter  the  navy,  induced  Mr. 
Jennison  to  give  him  lessons  in  navigation  preparatory  to 
his  professional  career  on  the  sea.  During  one  of  his  vaca- 
tions, while  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  his  age,  he  paid  a 
visit  to  his  elder  brother,  Dr.  Benjamin  F.  Harney,  who  was 


44  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

at  that  time  serving  in  the  United  States  army  at  Baton 
Rouge  as  surgeon.  While  on  this  visit  he  attracted  the 
attention  and  acquired  the  friendship  of  General  Jessup, 
then  in  command.  The  General  asked  him  if  he  did  not 
desire  to  enter  the  army.  Young  Harney  replied  that  his 
mother  intended  him  for  the  navy.  A  few  weeks  afterwards 
General  Jessup  handed  him  a  commission  as  Second  Lieu- 
tenant in  the  First  United  States  Infantr}-.  This  commis- 
sion is  dated  February  13.  18 18,  and  is  signed  by  James 
Monroe,  President  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  n. 

LIEUTENANT    HARNEY    AND    THE    PIRATE    LAFITTE. 

ON  the  28th  day  of  June,  1818,  Lieutenant  Harney  joined 
his  regiment,  then  serving  in  Louisiana.  The  com- 
pany to  which  he  belonged  was  sent  almost  immedi- 
ately to  Attakapas  Parish  in  that  State. 

At  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  fought  January  8,  18 15, 
the  American  army  under  General  Jackson  had  been  rein- 
forced and  materially  aided  by  the  pirates  of  Barataria. 
These  hardy  buccaneers  inhabited  a  series  of  small  islands 
along  the  coast  of  Louisiana,  and  made  war  on  the  com- 
merce of  all  nations.  Their  leaders  were  occasionally 
caught  and  imprisoned,  and  sometimes,  though  rarely,  exe- 
cuted for  their  crimes.  They  had  infested  the  Caribbean 
Sea  and  Gulf  of  Mexico  since  the  time  of  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  who  won  the  honor  of  knighthood,  at  the  hands  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  for  following  the  same  business.  Their 
ancestors  or  predecessors  had  laid  in  wait  for  the  richly 
laden  Spanish  galleons  which  carried  treasures  from  Mexico 
to  Spain.  There  had  never  been  a  time,  since  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  when  piracy  did  not  exist  in  the  waters  adjacent  to 
Louisiana  and  Florida,  and  on  the  Cuban  coast.  The 
advancing  and  increasing  settlements  of  the  West  Indies 
had,  with  the  navies  of  the  European  powers,  confined  but 
not  repressed  them.  Driven  by  English,  French  and  Span- 
ish' cruisers  out  of  the  direct  route  of  vessels  in  the  trade 
from  Mexico  to  Europe,  they,  too  weak  to  attack  convoyed 
fleets,  had  taken  refuge  among  the  islands  along  the  coast 
of  Louisiana,  and  within  the  great  inlets,  creeks  and  bays 
sheltered  by  that  coast. 

The  history  of  this  piratical  colony  will  never  be  known, 


46  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

because  they  kept  neither  archives  nor  annals.  Outlaws 
as  they  were,  they  had  little  communication  with  the  civil- 
ized world,  except  through  such  confederates  as  took  the 
risk  for  the  great  profit  it  afforded,  to  dispose  of  their  car- 
goes, or  supply  them  with  ammunition  and  stores.  They 
could  only  communicate  officially  with  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  through  the  prison  bars,  or  as  criminals 
in  the  dock  with  a  prospect  of  the  negotiation  ending  upon 
a  scaffold  at  the  end  of  a  halter. 

The  command  of  these  pirates  descended  from  Drake,  or 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  through  a  succession  of  desperate  and 
daring  outlaws,  of  whom  the  names  are  known  only  to  dim 
tradition,  until,  as  Vincent  Nolte  expresses  it,  "  for  want  of 
other  heirs "  it  fell  upon  the  two  brothers  Lafitte,  and  a 
pirate  named  Dominique,  afterwards  famous  for  having 
captured  the  daughter  of  Aaron  Burr.  These  pirates  were 
born  in  Bayonne.  The  elder  assumed  the  supreme  com- 
mand, and  called  himself  the  Emperor  of  Barataria. 
Lafitte  seems  to  have  been  a  bold,  intelligent  and  not  un- 
cultivated nor  ungenerous  man.  He  called  his  island  after 
the  celebrated  government  of  Sancho  Panza,  and  frequently 
issued  bulletins  and  proclamations  in  the  style  of  the  then 
Emperor  Napoleon. 

Lafitte,  being  French,  and  the  population  of  the  coast 
and  New  Orleans  being  of  French  origin  or  birth,  had  little 
difficulty  in  establishing  the  most  amicable  relations  with 
the  inhabitants.  There  was  a  kindly  feeling  for  the  free- 
booters among  the  early  settlers  of  Louisiana,  a  good  feeling 
which  earned  for  the  people  a  kind  of  immunity  for  their 
own  commerce,  while  it  in  a  measure  licensed  Lafitte's 
depredations  on  the  commerce  of  other  people.  The  pirates 
were  often  captured  and  brought  into  New  Orleans,  but 
rarely  suffered  the  extreme  penalties  of  the  law.  The 
juries  were  lenient,  at  least  good-natured  with  them,  and 
they  were  always  able  to  employ  and  pay  good  counsel. 
Lafitte  had  a  friend  named  Leclerc,  likewise  a  Frenchman, 


HARNEY  AND  LAFITTE.  47 

who  published  a  newspaper  in  New  Orleans,  and  he  often 
sent  his  Napoleonic  proclamations  of  the  Emperor  of  Bara- 
taria  to  Leclerc  for  publication  and  official  promulgation 
to  his  subjects.  It  happened  unfortunately — or  fortunately 
— that  Lafitte  and  his  brother  Baluche,  who  often  showed 
themselves  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans,  in  company  with 
Leclerc,  Monsieur  Darezac  and  others,  had  been  arrested 
by  some  over-zealous  American  official,  and  were  confined 
in  jail.  They  had  never  before  had  any  difficulty  in  giving 
bail,  but  this  time  the  judge — Hall — refused  to  take  bail  for 
them.  They  retained  Edward  Livingston,  a  lawyer  be- 
longing to  an  illustrious  family  in  New  York,  for  their 
counsel.  Livingston  was  a  man  of  learning  and  ability,  but 
by  no  means  fastidious.  He  had  removed  from  New  York 
because,  having  the  hereditary  talent  of  his  family,  he  was 
not  possessed  of  their  hereditary  virtues,  and  was  a  ready 
and  able  advocate  of  the  pirates  on  all  occasions.  Being 
brother-in-law  of  Darezac,  he  had  a  ready  means  of  making 
them  his  clients,  and  earning  good  fees  from  the  fruits  of 
their  crimes. 

It  happened  that  Baluche  Lafitte  and  some  of  his  con- 
federates were  in  prison,  and  about  to  be  tried  for  their  pira- 
cies, at  the  time  Lord  Packenham  landed  at  the  Valliere 
plantation  with  an  English  force  for  the  capture  of  New 
Orleans.  Livingston  represented  to  General  Jackson,  whose 
troops,  outside  of  Coffee's  brigade  (about  500  strong),  were 
raw  militia,  that  by  the  release  of  the  pirates  the  whole 
force  of  the  Empire  of  Barataria  could  be  brought  to  aid 
in  the  defence  of  the  city ;  that  they  were  skilled  in  the  use 
of  artillery  and  could  render  efficient  service.  He  only 
asked  that  the  pirates  should  be  released  from  the  jail  and 
given  charge  of  such  batteries  as  could  be  arranged  for 
them,  and  a  promise  to  intercede  for  their  pardon  with  the 
President  at  Washington.  General  Jackson  reluctantly  con- 
sented, and  in  the  emergency  gave  his  word.  He  had  been 
annoyed  at  the  persistency  of  the  judge  (Hall)  who  held 


48  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARXEY. 

the  civil  court,  insisting  on  the  forms  of  law  being  observed, 
when  he  ordered  the  citizens  into  the  lines  and  trenches, 
until  in  a  moment  of  passion  he  ordered  him  off  the  bench 
and  proclaimed  martial  law.  He  therefore  having  closed 
the  courts,  opened  the  jails  and  let  out  the  pirates.  They 
rendered  such  good  service  that  it  may  be  doubted  if  the 
battle  could  have  been  gained  without  them. 

General  Jackson  kept  his  word,  and  the  Lafittes  ob- 
served the  terms  on  which  they  accepted  their  pardon. 
One  of  them  (Baluche)  accepted  service  in  the  Venezuelan 
navy  and  died  a  commodore.  The  other  has  furnished  the 
theme  for  several  novels,  but  his  fate  is  not  definitely 
known,  though  he  was  seen  at  Paris  as  late  as  1857,  at  an 
advanced  age. 

The  pirate  settlement,  by  the  loss  of  their  leaders,  was 
comparatively  broken  up.  The  empire  of  Barataria  existed 
no  longer,  but  the  hardened  and  hardy  wretches  who  were 
formerly  Lafitte's  subjects,  scattered  abroad,  and  without  an 
able  and  intrepid  leader,  commenced  a  system  of  smaller 
piracies.  They  took  possession  of  the  inlets  to  the  Gulf, 
and  made  themselves  a  rendezvous  in  the  secluded  islands 
of  the  Atchafalaya  on  the  borders  of  the  parish  of  Attaka- 
pas.  It  was  to  repress  the  depredations  of  these  outlaws 
that  Lieutenant  Harney's  company  was  sent  into  that  por- 
tion of  Louisiana.  The  pirates  had  become  smugglers,  and 
their  headquarters  were  at  Galveston  Island,  then  a  portion 
of  Texas  and  a  province  of  Mexico. 

The  Atchafalaya  is  a  bay  which  puts  into  the  main-land 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  is  about  one  hundred  miles 
west  of  Barataria,  and  communicates  by  several  inlets  and 
bayous  with  Vermillion  Bay  and  Cote  Blanche.  An  intri- 
cate system  of  deep  inlets  and  creeks  communicates  with 
the  interior  of  the  State  and  upper  Red  River,  without  con- 
nection with  the  Mississippi,  but  parallel  with  it.  This 
Bay  furnished  facilities  for  evasion  of  the  revenue  laws 
which  the  ex-piratcs  and  daring  smugglers  could  not  forego. 


HARNEY  AND  LAFITTE.  49 

It  was,  to  use  the  term,  entrenched  for  their  purposes  and 
covered  by  dense  swamps  of  cypress,  and  almost  a  lab- 
yrinth of  deep  and  sluggish  creeks.  The  Bay  was,  and 
still  is,  navigable  for  ships  of  moderate  burden,  suitable  for 
the  smuggler.  It  was  studded  with  islands,  and  was 
in  reality  a  sea,  an  archipelago  imbedded  in  forests  and 
swamps. 

We  have  said  that  Lafitte's  men  had  their  headquarters 
at  Galveston  Island,  where  is  now  the  beautiful  city  of  Gal- 
veston. But  at  that  time  it  was  only  an  island  of  low 
sand  beach,  which  gave  a  shelter  in  a  harbor  too  shallow 
for  large  vessels,  and  furnished  with  convenient  inlets  and 
creeks  where  smugglers  could  find  easy  refuge  from 
cruisers. 

Lafitte  had  met  with  some  injury  to  himself  and  family 
in  his  native  countr}-,  at  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards.  With 
the  accustomed  pertinacity  of  the  Bayonnese  he  had  cher- 
ished the  wrong  and  sworn  vengeance  on  the  whole  Spanish 
race.  His  followers  preserved  the  vendetta.  They  did 
not  prey  upon  American  commerce,  but  were  apt  in  the 
business  of  smuggling  into  the  United  States  the  goods 
of  which  they  robbed  the  Spanish  vessels. 

The  company  to  which  Lieutenant  Harney  was  attached, 
on  reaching  the  archipelago,  made  their  headquarters  at  a 
place  called  New  Town,  near  Navia  Bay.  His  first  service 
at  this  post  was  to  ascend  the  bay  in  command  of  a  detach- 
ment, when  he  discovered  some  vessels  and  goods,  which 
he  took  possession  of,  and  then  returned  to  New  Town. 
In  the  woods  they  found  some  ducks  and  had  good  sport 
shooting.  The  detachment  was  delayed  until  their  com- 
panions thought  they  were  all  lost  or  killed. 

During  the  voyage  Lieutenant  Harney  stopped  at  an 
island  known  then  as  Thomas  Island,  and  was  treated  by 
the  proprietor,  a  Mr.  Thomas,  with  great  hospitality.  Ex- 
amining the  cargo  of  the  captured  vessels  they  found  them 
ballasted  with  bar  iron.     The  bars  were  hollow  and  filled 


50  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

with  quicksilver.  The  other  detachment,  in  command  of 
Captain  Amelung,  was  met  by  him  some  fifteen  miles 
from  the  camp,  and  the  Captain  seemed  very  much  surprised 
at  finding  Lieutenant  Harney  and  party  alive. 

Following  up  these  advantages  Lieutenant  Harney,  in 
charge  of  his  detachment,  cruising  in  a  boat  in  the  bay, 
signaled  a  small  sailing  vessel.  Having  no  more  conven- 
ient flag  with  which  to  call  the  attention  of  the  craft,  he 
tore  up  his  shirt.  The  vessel  hove  to  and  was  boarded  by 
Harney  and  his  party,  who  had  concealed  their  arms. 
Harney  demanded  to  see  the  papers  of  the  vessel.  The 
officer  could  not  speak  English,  and  addressed  him  through 
an  interpreter  in  Spanish.  After  descending  into  his  cabin 
he  reappeared  with  what  he  claimed  to  be  his  ship's  register. 
The  papers  were  not  satisfactory,  and  one  of  the  part}-, 
overhearing  the  captain  order  his  men,  in  French,  to  get 
ready  to  fight,  informed  Harney  of  the  fact.  He  thereupon 
siezed  the  captain  of  the  ship  and  threw  him  down  the  hatch- 
wa\',  while  his  men  captured  the  crew. 

In  the  meantime  an  equinoctial  storm  had  swept  over  the 
bay,  and  the  bayous  were  overflowed  with  brackish  water, 
so  that  the  men  had  much  difficulty  in  finding  water  fit  to 
drink.  They  suffered  very  much  from  thirst,  but  finalh- 
succeeded  in  finding  fresh  water  in  a  hollow  cypress  log, 
which,  however,  became  so  full  of  worms  that  the}-  had  to 
strain  it  before  it  was  fit  to  drink. 

After  capturing  the  smuggler  thc}'  found  in  the  cargo 
some  light  sour  wine,  which  answered  for  water,  to  the 
great  relief  of  the  part}'.  The}'  found  this  vessel  ballasted 
likewise  with  quicksilver,  and  she  was  manned  and  sent  to 
New  Orleans  as  a  prize.  Captain  Amelung  claimed  one- 
half  of  the  captured  goods,  but  ultimately  succeeded  in 
keeping  the  whole  of  them. 

After  this  campaign,  which  was  perilous  and  arduous,  in- 
volving perils  from  the  climate  as  well  as  the  half  savage 
and  desperate  smugglers,    Harnc}-  was  ordered  to  Baton 


HARNEY  AND  LAFITTE.  5  I 

Rouge,  where  he  reported  in  January,  1819.  It  was  thus 
in  his  nineteenth  year  the  great  soldier  began  his  appren- 
ticeship to  a  profession  he  has  so  well  adorned,  and  in 
which  he  has  so  faithfully  served  his  country.  Even  at 
that  early  age  he  displayed  an  intrepidity  which  has  ever 
since  characterized  his  career,  with  a  sagacity  incompatible 
with  a  blunder,  and  a  patient  courage  and  endurance  which 
gave  earnest  of  the  achievements  of  his  future  manhood. 

After  this  perilous  and  arduous  service,  in  which  he  had 
been  engaged  for  nearly  a  year,  he  was  ordered  to  Fort 
Warren,  in  Boston,  on  recruiting  service  for  his  regiment, 
the  First  Infantry.  Major  Brooks  was  in  command  of  the 
Fort.  A  conflict  soon  arose  between  him  and  his  subordi- 
nate. Major  Brooks  sometimes  left  the  post,  and  on  his 
leaving  Lieutenant  Harney  assumed  the  command.  For  so 
doing  complaints  were  made  to  the  superior  officer.  On 
one  occasion,  on  Major  Brooks'  return,  he  sent  for  Hafney, 
who  reported  at  once.     Major  Brooks  said, 

"  Lieutenant,  I  understand  you  assumed  command  in  my 
absence? " 

Harney  answered,  "Yes,  sir,  I  did." 

"  You  must  not  do  so  any  more,"  said  the  Major. 

"I  will  do  so  whenever  you  leave  the  Island,"  replied 
Harney,  firmly. 

The  Major  went  away  again  soon  after,  and  the  Lieuten- 
ant again  took  command.  When  Major  Brooks  returned 
he  preferred  charges  against  Lieutenant  Harney.  The 
charges  were  not  sustained  by  the  court-martial,  the  court 
finding  that  the  conduct  of  the  young  officer  was  in  accord- 
ance with  law  and  the  regulations.  After  this  there  was 
an  understanding  as  to  what  were  the  relative  duties  of  the 
two  officers. 

After  a  year  spent  in  recruiting  service  Harne\'  was 
ordered,  on  the  20th  of  June,  to  report  for  active  dut}'  with 
his  regiment  in  Louisiana,  and  he  accordingly  reported  at 
Baton  Rouge,  where  he  remained  until  March,   1821.     At 


52  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

that  time  he  was  allowed  his  first  leave  of  absence,  which 
lasted  until  July  of  that  year,  when  he  rejoined  his  regi- 
ment. It  was  during  this  leave  of  absence,  and  while  in 
New  Orleans,  that  Lieutenant  Harney  first  saw  Lafitte,  the 
pirate. 

Florida  had  been  a  province  of  Spain.  Ponce  de  Leon, 
a  Spanish  adventurer,  in  the  most  adventurous  period  of 
the  life  of  the  Spanish  nation,  had  landed  there  in  search  of 
the  fabulous  Fountain  of  Youth.  He  had  named  it  Florida, 
or  land  of  flowers.  Afterwards  came  the  celebrated  Fer- 
nando de  Soto,  in  1539,  only  forty-seven  years  after  the 
discovery  of  America  by  Christopher  Columbus,  and  the 
Spanish  colony  of  Saint  Augustine,  the  oldest  settlement 
in  the  United  States,  was  founded.  Florida  had  remained 
a  province  of  Spain  after  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  from 
the  French,  and  long  after  Spain  had  parted  with  her  title 
to  the  Louisianas. 

When  the  war  with  England  began,  in  18 12,  many  hostile 
tribes  of  Indians  in  Georgia  and  Alabama  took  refuge  in 
Florida.  They  were  called  Seminoles  or  runaways,  and 
were  encouraged  by  the  Spanish  authorities  and  pro- 
tected by  the  Spanish  garrisons  which  manned  the  small 
posts  held  by  Spain  in  that  province.  These  Indians,  rein- 
forced by  such  runaway  slaves  as  had  taken  refuge  in 
Spanish  territory,  finding  the  United  States  at  war  with 
England,  and  incited  by  English  emissaries,  formed  them- 
selves into  small  bands  and  made  war  on  their  own  account 
on  the  border  inhabitants  of  our  country.  They  murdered, 
robbed,  and  scalped,  and  committed  outrages  in  their  pred- 
atory raids  into  American  territory  when  occasion  offered, 
and  then  fell  back  into  the  forests  and  glades  of  the 
Spanish  territory.  They  thus  kept  the  States  bordering 
on  Florida  in  continual  alarm.  The  English  aided  and 
organized  them  under  the  leadership  of  Francis  Hilli- 
sago,  a  distinguished  Seminole  chief.  The  English  Gov- 
ernment   was    represented    by   Arbuthnot  and    Ambuster, 


I.AFITTF.. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UKIV£ft«TY  «F  ILLINOIS 


HARNEY  AND  LAFITTE.  55 

who  sustained,  advised,  and  incited  the  Seminoles  to  hos- 
tihties. 

These  hostihties  did  not  cease  with  the  treaty  of  Ghent, 
and  General  Jackson  was  finally  ordered  to  take  command 
of  the  militia  and  quell  the  disturbances.  He  succeeded  to 
the  extent  that  he  captured  and  executed  Hillisago,  and 
subsequently  with  an  army  composed  principally  of  Ten- 
nessee militia,  overran  the  Spanish  Territory,  captured 
Arbuthnot  and  Ambuster,  and  hanged  one  and  shot  the 
other.  He  also  captured  the  Spanish  garrisons  of  Saint 
Augustine  and  Pensacola  at  Fort  Barrancas,  and  sent  the 
Spaniards  to  Cuba.  These  summary  proceedings  did  not 
provoke  war  with  Spain,  but  led  to  the  purchase  and  ces- 
sion of  Florida  to  the  United  States  by  treaty  on  the  17th 
day  of  July,  1821. 

At  this  juncture  General  Jackson,  on  taking  possession 
of  Florida  in  behalf  of  his  government,  and  being  Governor 
of  Florida  with  all  the  authority  of  his  own  nation  and 
the  Spanish  Governor,  one  of  his  aides-de-camp  being  ab- 
sent, called  on  Lieutenant-Harney,  the  son  of  his  old  friend 
and  neighbor,  to  serve  on  his  staff  in  his  stead.  Harney 
accordingly  reported  for  this  duty  to  General  Jackson  at 
Pensacola.  General  Jackson  honored  him  with  the  com- 
mand of  the  guard  attendant  on  the  transfer  of  the  country 
from  a  foreign  to  our  own  nation.  In  this  position  he 
served  till  the  consummation  of  the  transfer,  and  General 
Jackson  being  relieved  of  the  command  at  his  own  re- 
quest, Lieutenant  Harney  reported  at  Baton  Rouge  in 
March,  1822,  for  duty  with  his  regiment. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EXPEDITION    TO    THE    YELLOWSTONE. 

/"TNFTER  his  return  from  Florida,  Lieutenant  Harney 
(4^  remained  with  his  regiment  in  the  field  and  at  Baton 
Rouge  until  March,  1822,  when  his  health  having 
failed,  his  family  predisposition  to  consumption  induced 
him  to  apply  for  a  sick  leave  of  absence,  which  was  granted. 
But  in  INIay  he  again  reported  for  "duty  with  his  regiment, 
and  for  considerations  of  health,  he  exchanged  with  Lieu- 
tenant Brent  of  the  First  Artillery.  He  joined  his  new 
regiment  in  garrison  at  Fort  Constitution,  N.  H.,  and 
remained  in  that  arm  of  the  service  till  February,  1823,  at 
which  time  he  was  re-transferred  to  the  First  Infantry,  and 
rejoined  his  regiment  in  the  field  in  Louisiana.  He  served 
with  his  command  in  Mississippi  until  April,  1824,  and 
again  in  Louisiana  until  August  of  that  year,  at  which  time 
he  reported  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  the  first  time  his  duty 
had  called  him  into  Missouri. 

No  steam.boat  had  ever  at  that  time  ascended  the  turbid 
waters  of  the  Missouri  River.  The  State  had  only  been 
four  years  admitted  into  the  Union,  and  all  west  and  north- 
west of  it  was  a  wild  and  uninhabited  territory,  except 
where  the  few  military  out-posts  afforded  protection  from 
the  savages  to  the  few  and  sparse  settlements  of  whites. 
The  trapper  and  hunter,  principally  French  voyageurs,  car- 
ried on  a  trade  with  the  Indians  for  peltries  and  buffalo 
robes.  The  great  rivers  of  the  West  were  still  navigated 
only  by  the  pirogue,  the  flat  and  keel-boat,  and  tlio  Indian 
canoe.  Since  Father  Marquette  descended  the  Mississippi 
River  in  1671,  but  little  progress  had  been  made  in  the 
means  of  navigation.     The    Jesuits  and   Franciscans,  ever 


TO  THE  YELLOWSTONE.  5/ 

the  pioneers  of  civilization,  carrying  the  cross  to  the  wild 
and  nomadic  tribes  of  the  West,  had  preceded  with  the 
mission  of  peace  and  salvation,  the  voyageur  and  trafficker, 
and  had  penetrated  among  the  distant  tribes  on  both  sides 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Many  of  them  had  suffered 
martyrdom,  and  many  had  died  from  exposure  and  priva- 
tion, but  the  bold  advance  guard,  armed  with  the  gospel, 
had  prepared  the  way  of  peaceful  conquest  over  the  then 
supposed  great  American  desert,  and  the  mountain  fast- 
nesses of  the  Cordilleras.  Father  De  Smet,  the  saintly 
^^  black  gow7i,"  had  only  begun  the  conversion  of  the 
Blackfeet.  Except  the  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  few 
save  some  hardy  voyageurs  and  the  faithful  missionaries  had 
ever  penetrated  to  the  Pacific  coast.  The  traders  and 
trappers  had  introduced  among  the  Indians,  with  their 
wares,  the  knowledge  of  whisky  and  the  corrupting  in- 
fluences of  civilized  vices,  and  with  traffic  and  vice  their 
rapacity  had  made  the  wild  savage,  naturally  simple  minded 
and  truthful,  acquainted  with  the  arts  of  falsehood  and 
fraud.  Overreached  and  swindled  by  the  civilized  man, 
the  wild  man  became  suspicious  of  that  civilfzation  which 
taught  him  only  the  devious  paths  and  crooked  ways  of 
dishonesty. 

At  that  time  the  Crows  and  the  Mandans,  the  Sioux  and 
Gros-Ventres,  were  powerful  and  warlike  tribes,  inhabiting 
the  territory  bordering  on  the  Missouri  River  on  both 
sides,  from  the  confines  of  the  white  settlements  in  Mis- 
souri to  the  Yellowstone,  They  had  seen  with  jealous}'  the 
progress  of  encroaching  white  settlements,  and  seem  to 
have  anticipated  the  ultimate  ruin  and  decay  of  their  race. 
They  had  found  the  vices  and  frauds  of  the  white  man 
more  dangerous  and  formidable  than  his  arms.  Dim  tradi- 
tions of  the  perishing  red  man  of  the  far  East  and  sun- 
rise had  reached  them.  They  found  themselves  receding 
before  him,  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  persuade  them  that 
to  fight  and  die  was  preferable  to  inglorious  vassalage. 


58  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

It  ought  to  be  noted  that  the  French  inhabitants  of  Loui- 
siana, which  included  the  whole  of  the  great  valleys  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  watered  by  the  ^lississippi  and 
Missouri,  and  their  tributaries,  had  always  lived  in  peace 
and  good-will  with  the  Indians.  With  the  exception  of  the 
massacre  at  Natchez,  in  1763,  but  few  or  no  instances  of 
hostilities  occurred  between  the  French  and  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants.  The  affair  at  Natchez  was  an  outrage  which 
grew  out  of  the  rapacity  of  a  trading  company  to  whom 
had  been  granted  a  monopoly.  It  was  regarded  as  so  dis- 
graceful and  dishonest,  cowardly  and  cruel,  that  the  public 
sontiment  of  the  province  condemned  it  to  such  an  extent 
that  nothing  of  the  kind  recurred  until  the  Spanish  Govern- 
or O'Reilly  tyrannized  over  the  country  for  a  brief  period. 
The  French,  in  their  dealings  with  the  Indians,  were  scru- 
pulously just  and  fair.  They  were  a  polite  and  polished 
people,  who  readily  adapted  themselves  to  the  simple 
habits  and  manners  of  the  red  man.  They  were  wine- 
drinkers,  and  being  sober  in  their  habits,  not  likely  to  intro- 
duce drunkenness  among  the  savages  either  by  precept  or 
example.  The  early  voyageur  and  French  inhabitant 
seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  few  wants  and  simple  tastes. 
The  Frenchman  was  satisfied  with  enough,  and  enjoyed  his 
abundance  in  gayeties.  He  was  to  some  extent  insensible 
to  the  temptations  of  grasping  avarice,  and  indifferent  to 
parsimony  when  there  was  abundance.  For  f  im  and  the 
native  aborigines  the  world  was  big  enough,  and  the  val- 
ley furnished  abundance  for  both.  He  preferred  to  live 
with  the  Indian  peaceably  and  socially.  It  is  remarkable 
how  few  Indian  outrages  are  reported  in  the  nearl}-  two 
centuries  the  Louisianas  had  been  known  to  the  French  as 
compared  with  the  incessant  wars  and  brutalities  provoked 
between  the  English  and  the  red  men,  from  the  time  of 
King  Philip,'^of  the  Pequods,  whose  people  were  killed  or 
transported  as  slaves  by  the  Puritans,  just  out  of  the  May- 
Flower,    down    to    the    Quaker   administration    of     Indian 


TO  THE  YELLOWSTONE.  59 

Affairs,  and  the  times  of  Captain  Jack,  Sitting  Bull,  and 
Chief  Joseph  of  the  Nez  Perces. 

From  the  English  settlements  the  Indian  receded,  leaving 
behind  him  a  trail  of  blood  and  carnage.  His  line  of  re- 
treat has  been  marked  with  massacre  and  ruin.  As  his 
race  faded  out  he  has  occasionally  bestirred  himself  and 
marked  his  dying  agony  with  the  heroism  of  despair.  From 
Wyoming,  where  all  the  peaceful  inhabitants  of  a  beautiful 
valley  were  slaughtered  and  scalped,  to  the  sad  massacre 
of  Custer's  command  on  the  Little  Big  Horn,  he  has  ever 
turned  upon  his  foes  in  the  deadliest  spirit  of  wily  and 
savage  vengeance.  Yet  in  the  early  settlement  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  the  spirit  of  justice,  fair  dealing  and  mercy 
were  illustrated  by  the  scrupulous  followers  of  Penn  in  their 
system  of  brotherly  love,  as  in  Louisiana,  it  was  rare  that 
Indian  outrages  occurred.  It  was  not,  as  M.  De  Vergennes 
shows  in  his  able  and  comprehensive  memorial  to  the 
French  king,  until  the  English  trader  from  the  American 
settlements  of  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  introduced  their 
fire-water  and  vices  among  the  Indians  of  Louisiana,  along 
with  their  traffic,  that  the  savages,  demoralized  by  contact 
with  civilization,  became  savage. 

At  this  time  St.  Louis  had  not  more  than  five  thousand 
inhabitants,  and  the  whole  State  of  Missouri  not  more  than 
twenty  thousand.  The  State  was  under  the  administration  of 
her  first  Governor,  McNair,  and  her  first  Senators,  Thomas 
H.  Benton  and  David  Barton,  represented  her  in  the  Sen- 
ate, while  John  Scott  was  her  only  Representative  in 
Congress.  The  town  of  Vide  Poche,  now  Carondelet,  then 
several  miles  from  the  city,  was  still  as  primitive  as  when 
Perrin  du  Lac  described  it  in  1803,  '' Its  inhabita7its  had  little 
to  distinguish  them  front,  savages  except  their  snrtonts." 
Then,  and  for  many  years  afterwards,  their  industry  con- 
sisted in  catching  drift  wood. 

But  St.  Louis  was  thoroughly  French.  It  had  always 
been  French,  and  even  for  the  few  years  that  O'Reilly  and 


60  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  Spanish  Governors  had  ruled  Louisiana,  had  hardly- 
acknowledged  anybody  but  the  French  king  as  their  ruler. 
They  were  not  over-zealous  Americans  when,  in  1803,  the 
province  was  turned  over  to  the  United  States,  after  the 
treaty  with  Napoleon.  Their  friendly  relations  with  the 
Indians  had  rarely  been  disturbed,  hence  Lewis  and  Clark 
had  found  the  tribes  peaceful  and  hospitable  all  the  way 
across  the  Continent  in  the  very  year  Louisiana  was  acquired 
from  France.  But,  after  the  English-speaking  people 
had  spread  over  the  Northwest  and  began  to  settle  on  the 
frontiers,  and  after  the  Saxon  trader  had  penetrated  into 
the  Indian  country,  the  savage  tribes  began  to  discover  a 
difference  between  the  French  voyageur  and  the  American 
trader.  They  had  known  the  Frenchman  as  the  Canadian 
trapper,  the  trader  from  St.  Louis,  and  as  the  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary. The  introduction  of  the  Saxon  element  had, 
again  as  in  lower  Louisiana,  demoralized  the  savage  and 
made  him  restless  and  ferocious. 

Rumors  of  threatened  Indian  troubles  had  reached  the 
Departments  at  Washington,  and  there  was  a  prospect  of 
an  outbreak.  The  Sioux  and  Auricheras,  Mandans  and 
Gros-Ventres  were  threatening  an  alliance  which  promised 
to  place  these  sturdy  warriors  on  the  war-path. 

Lieutenant  Harney  had  been  ordered  to  Jefferson  Bar- 
racks. He  found  the  volante  and  amiable  societ)'  of  the 
early  French  inhabitants  to  his  taste.  Young  and  full  of 
life  and  vigor,  with  animal  spirits  sustained  by  vigorous 
health,  and  a  more  than  ordinarily  manly  plu'sique,  the  Lieu- 
tenant, after  his  arduous  campaigns,  began  to  find  compen- 
sation for  his  many  toils  in  the  charming  society  of  the  then 
young  city,  which,  now  a  metropolis,  has  ever  since  been 
his  permanent  home. 

Four  companies,  including  Lieutenant  Harnej-'s,  had  re- 
ported at  Jefferson  l^arracks.  The>^  soon  received  orders 
to  start  for  Council  Bluffs,  for  which  post,  after  making  due 
preparations,  the}'  departed.     The  orders  were   soon   coun- 


TO  THE  YELLOWSTONE.  6 1 

termanded,  and  news  reached  them  that  the  Indians  had 
made  peace.  The  detachment  ^stopped  for  the  winter  at 
Bellefontaine,  about  fifteen  miles  above  Saint  Louis. 

In  the  spring  following  the  detachments,  consisting  of 
about  three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  moved  forward  for 
Council  Bluffs.  They  were  accompanied  by  General  Atkin- 
son and  Major  Benjamin  O'Fallon  as  peace  commissioners, 
with  Mr.  Langham  as  secretary.  They  went  in  keel-boats 
which  had  to  be  propelled  up  the  current  of  the  Missouri 
River  by  poles  at  the  shoulder  of  the  sturdy  boatman,  and 
often  when  the  swift  current  could  not  be  mastered  in  this 
manner,  they  were  forced  to  haul  up  the  boat  by  cordell- 
ing.  This  proceeding  consisted  in  lying-to  at  the  bank  until 
a  strong  cable  was  carried  forward  and  fastened  to  a  tree 
or  stake,  when  all  hands  would  pull  against  the  current  by 
main  strength.  This  method  was  laborious  and  slow,  re- 
quiring weeks  and  even  months  to  accompJish  tedious  voy- 
ages which  now,  with  the  aid  of  steamboats,  are  made  in  a 
few  days. 

The  boats  were  heavily  laden  with  ammunition  and  sup- 
plies for  the  expedition,  as  well  as  with  their  valuable  car- 
goes of  human  lives.  The  voyage  was  not  only  tedious  and 
full  of  labor,  but  perilous.  The  detachment  camped  on 
shore  at  night  and  resumed  their  journey  each  day.  No 
white  people  lived  on  the  shores  at  any  point  above  Boon- 
ville  or  Old  Franklin. 

Old  Council  Bluffs  is  situated  about  fifteen  miles  above 
Omaha,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Missouri  River,  The  pres- 
ent site  of  Omaha  was  then  a  trading  post,  owned  by  a 
Frenchman  named  Cabanne,  whose  name  is  familiar  to  all 
the  old  citizens  of  Saint  Louis.  Old  Council  Bluffs  is  a 
high  bluff,  and  takes  its  name  on  account  of  having  been  a 
general  rendezvous  of  Indians  meeting  in  council.  It  was 
known  afterwards  as  Fort  Atkinson.  The  troops  remained 
there  that  winter. 

In  the  spring  they  moved  up  to  Two   Thousand   Mile 


62  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY, 

Creek,  which  was  so  named  by  Lewis  and  Clark,  from  the 
circumstance  that  it  was  iust  two  thousand  miles  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Missouri  River,  and  is  three  hundred  miles 
above  the  Yellowstone.  Part  of  this  command  was  left  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone,  and  Lieutenant  Harney  was 
placed  in  command  of  about  five  hundred  men,  whom,  ac- 
companied by  General  Atkinson,  he  conducted  safely  to 
Two  Thousand  Mile  Creek.  The  object  of  this  expedition 
was  to  make  treaties  with  the  Indians.  They  had  met  the 
Indians  in  council,  consisting  of  Crows,  Gros-Ventres  and 
Mandans,  at  the  Mandan  village,  where  some  incidents  oc- 
curred which  illustrate  favorably  some  of  the  grandest 
traits  of  Indian  character  and  the  perils  which  sometimes 
follow  the  most  trifling  indiscretions. 

The  true  soldier  is  always  brave  and  firm,  but  the  respon- 
sible duties  of  his  profession  require  him  to  be  always  cool 
and  discreet. 

A  knowledge  of  Indian  character  is  not  always  acquired 
by  intuition,  but  must  be  learned  from  experience  and  by 
contact  with  him.  When  analyzed  to  his  primitive 
elements  he  is  always  found  to  be  a  man.  He  is  human, 
like  the  rest  of  the  creatures  of  Almighty  God.  Contact 
with  the  red  man  in  some  of  his  debased  phases  does  not 
tend  to  invest  him  with  the  heroic  character  with  which 
Cooper  in  his  novels  and  Pope  in  his  "  Essay  on  Man"  have 
clothed  him,  but  tiiose  who  know  him  best  have  often  had 
occasion  to  see  him  in  those  better  aspects  in  which  his 
native  manliness  and  impassive  stoicism  show  him  equal 
to  the  more  civilized  white  man  ;  and  his  worst  phases  only 
make  him  no  better  than  the  worst  specimens  of  white  civ- 
ilization, where  human  depravity  is  only  exaggerated  by 
cultivation  and  intelligence. 

At  the  council  held  with  the  Mandans,  Crows  and  Gros- 
Ventres,  an  incident  occurred  which  did  not  show  the  sav- 
age nature  inferior  to  the  best  phase  of  civilized  humanity. 
The    council  was    held    in    camp    adjacent   to  the   village. 


TO  THE  YELLOWSTONE.  63 

The  chiefs  and  sachems,  clad  in  their  barbaric  habiUments, 
were  assembled  and  seated  in  a  circle.  Their  war  paint 
and  their  dress  gave  a  picturesque  and  grotesque  dignity  to 
the  council,  and  the  forest  chieftains,  with  that  solemn  die- 
nity  from  which  they  are  never  startled  or  surprised, 
attended  to  the  voice  of  the  peace  commissioners. 

After  each  warrior  had  delivered  his  oration,  the  terms 
and  conditions  of  the  treaty  began  to  be  discussed. 
Among  the  matters  first  stated  to  the  red  men  was  a 
demand  for  the  restoration  of  some  prisoners  captured  from 
a  tribe  in  the  British  possessions.  They  were  a  family  of 
British  subjects,  and  the  English  government  had  asked, 
through  its  minister,  to  have  them  restored.  The  matter 
was  stated  through  an  interpreter  in  all  its  details,  and  it 
was  explained  that  the  prisoners  should  be  set  at  liberty 
and  restored  to  their  friends  as  a  primary  condition  of 
peace. 

The  chiefs  heard  the  proposition  with  patience  and  with- 
out emotion,  and  after  it  was  through  one  of  them  arose 
and  in  response,  stated  they  were  ready  to  liberate  the 
prisoners,  but  they  must  be  ransomed  and  paid  for.  One 
of  the  American  commissioners,  Major  O'Fallon,  who 
was  irritable  from  recent  sickness  and  nervousness,  lost  his 
temper,  and  becoming  excited  at  the  cool  proposition  of  the 
chief,  advanced  upon  him  and  struck  him  over  the  head 
and  in  the  face  with  his  horse-pistol,  and  angrily  admin- 
istered the  same  treatment  to  two  other  chiefs,  but  before 
he  could  advance  to  another  he  was  caught  by  Colonel 
Leavenworth.  The  chiefs  were  seriously  wounded  and  the 
blood  ran  down  their  faces.  They  remained  perfectly  quiet, 
but  in  an  instant  every  warrior  placed  himself  in  a  position 
of  defense  and  offence.  The  Indians  were  fully  armed  and 
outnumbered  the  whites  both  in  council  and  in  camp.  For- 
tunately the  other  commissioners  and  officers  were  less 
rash  than  Major  O'Fallon.  The  moment  was  one  of  great 
peril.     Every    man's    life    depended   on   his   coolness    and 


64  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

presence  of  mind.  Some  one  of  them  had  the  long  roll 
sounded,  which  called  the  disciplined  troops  to  arms,  while 
they  undertook  to  explain  to  the  Indians  that  Major 
O'Fallon's  indiscreet  rashness  was  the  result  of  delirium. 
At  this  juncture  Lieutenant  Harney  approached  the  head 
warrior  of  the  Crow  nation  and  extended  to  him  his  hand 
in  token  of  peace.  The  surly  chieftain  refused  to  take  him 
by  the  hand.  There  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  It  was  war 
or  peace.  The  Lieutenant  cursed  the  chief  and  looked  him 
steadily  in  the  eye  for  some  moments.  The  warrior 
received  his  gaze  defiantly  for  awhile  and  then  took  the 
extended  hand  in  token  of  good  faith,  threw  off  his  robe 
and  went  immediately  through  the  crowd  of  Indians,  and 
soon  aided  the  interpreter  and  the  party  in  explaining  the 
untoward  circumstance.  After  awhile  order  was  restored 
and  the  negotiations  progressed.  The  family  were  given 
up  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  peace,  but  the  Govern- 
ment paid  the  ransom  first  demanded.  The  treaty  was  con- 
cluded satisfactorily  to  both  parties,  and  resulted  in  peace. 

Lieutenant  Harney  was  physically  a  man  of  most  grace- 
ful and  muscular  frame,  tall  and  spare,  he  had  great  pow- 
ers of  endurance  as  well  as  strength.  He  was  very  fleet  of 
foot  and  his  reputation  as  a  runner  had  become  known  to 
the  Crows  and  Mandans,  and  the  tribes  of  the  upper  Mis- 
souri. / 

During  the  council  held  at  the  Mandan  Village  Harney 
had  a  race  with  a  Crow  Indian,  but  he  was  encumbered 
with  his  clothes,  and  had  his  pockets  full  of  Indian  relics 
he  had  been  buying  and  collecting.  In  this  race  the 
Crow  warrior  had  the  advantage,  which  Harney  gracefully 
acknowledged,  but  he  told  the  warrior  that  at  ten  o'clock 
the  next  day  he  would  run  another  race  with  him.  The 
Indian  went  off  well  pleased,  and  to  the  surprise  of  every- 
body, all  the  warriors  and  women  and  children  in  the 
neighborhood,  with  their  champion  runner,  appeared 
at  the  appointed  hour.     They  commenced  piling  up  buffalo 


myEmji  or  nurm 


TO  THE  YELLOWSTONE.  6/ 

robes  and  tobacco  and  such  barbaric  ornaments  and  treas- 
ures as  they  had,  at  the  feet  of  the  Lieutenant  and  the 
Crow  warrior.  These  were  intended  as  a  prize  to  the 
winner. 

At  the  start  the  Indian  got  the  advantage.  The  course 
was  over  a  fine,  grassy,  elevated  prairie.  They  were  to  run 
a  half-mile,  and  for  some  distance  the  Crow  kept  the  lead. 
Lieutenant  Harney  heard  one  of  his  brother  officers.  Cap- 
tain Spencer,  exclaim,  "  A  little  faster,  Harney,  or  he  will 
beat  you."  Hearing  this  voice  he  renewed  his  efforts  and 
quickened  his  speed.  He  soon  passed  the  Indian  and  came 
first  to  the  goal.  "There  was  great  excitement  and  interest 
felt  in  the  race  on  both  sides,  and  General  Atkinson  assured 
Harney  he  would  not  have  had  him  lose  the  race  for  a 
thousand  dollars.  These  feats  of  physical  excellence  had 
a  great  tendency  to  awe  the  Indians  into  a  respect  for  the 
white  people,  which  barbaric  races  always  feel  for  superior 
prowess. 

On  reaching  Two  Thousand  Mile  Creek  the  troops  re- 
mained there  two  days.  They  did  not  find  any  Indians. 
Meanwhile  Lieutenant  Harney  and  Captain  Mason  went  up 
the  Yellowstone  on  a  hunting  expedition  and  camped  out. 
Next  morning  on  awakening  Harney  supposed  he  saw 
some  Indians,  and  called  to  Captain  Mason,  but  they  soon 
discovered  that  what  they  saw  were  boats  coming  down  the 
Yellowstone,  and  they  were  soon  ascertained  to  be  some 
trading  boats  belonging  to  General  Ashley,  of  Saint  Louis. 
They  were  fourteen  in  number,  and  were  laden  with  pel- 
tries and  buffalo  robes.  They  were  of  about  the  value  of 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  When  the  flotilla  reached 
the  camp,  the  peltries  were  placed  in  the  keel-boat  com- 
manded by  Lieutenant  Harney  and  transported  to  Council 
Bluffs,  where  they  were  transferred  to  another  boat  belong- 
ing to  General  Ashley, 

General  Ashley  was  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
pioneer  citizens  of  early  Saint   Louis.      He   was  a  man  of 


68  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

great  enterprise  and  liberality,  and  of  such  force  of  char- 
acter as  made  success,  and  eminent  success  in  life,  inev- 
itable. 

On  one  occasion,  while  eating  dinner  in  mid-winter  at 
his  house  in  St.  Louis,  he  got  news  that  his  voyageurs  and 
agents,  with  their  rich  crop  of  peltries,  had  been  captured 
by  the  Indians.  He  immediately  mounted  his  horse  and 
started  for  the  mountains,  where,  by  dint  of  his  courage, 
untiring  energy  and  firmness,  he  succeeded  in  recovering 
all  and  safely  transporting  them  to  Saint  Louis. 

It  was  at  Council  Bluffs  that  Lieutenant  Harney  received 
notice  of  his  well-earned  promotion  to  the  rank  of  Captain 
of  the  P'irst  Infantr\'.  This  commission  was  dated  14th  of 
May,  1825.  On  the  voyage  homeward  the  Captain  re- 
ceived a  proposition  from  General  Ashley,  which  was  a 
sore  temptation  to  the  young  soldier,  who  at  that  time  had 
no  fortune  but  his  pay,  to  leave  a  profession  which  he  has 
so  well  adorned,  and  abandon  a  career  which  has  been  so 
useful  to  his  country  and  honorable  to  himself.  Ashley, 
realizing  the  intrepid  manhood  of  the  young  Captain  of 
twenty-five,  proposed  to  fit  out  a  trading  expedition  to  the 
Yellowstone,  place  Harne}'  in  charge  of  it  and  give  him 
one-half  of  all  the  profits  to  be  earned.  The  Captain  was 
not  to  be  required  to  put  in  one  dollar  of  capital,  and  would 
only  have  to  give  his  energy  and  attention  to  conducting 
the  business ;  but  after  mature  reflection  he  declined  the 
proposition. 

On  arriving  at  Saint  Louis  in  October,  Captain  Harney 
was  ordered  to  report  for  duty  w  ith  his  regiment  in  the 
field.  The  regiment  was  tiien  serving  in  the  Creek  Nation, 
and  Harney  remained  there  until  June,  1826,  at  which  time 
he  was  ordered  to  New  Orleans,  where  he  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  the  Duke  Sa.Ke-Weimer,  to  whom  the  Captain  pre- 
sented a  full  set  of  Indian  curiosities.  He  also  met  Lafitte, 
from  whose  Baratarian  subjects  he  had,  in  18 19,  captured 
three  vessels  in  the  Bav  i>f  .\tchafalava.     Lafitte  was  about 


TO  THE  YELLOWSTONE.  69 

five  feet  eight  inches  high,  rather  heavy  set,  like  a  seaman, 
with  fine  broad  shoulders,  a  very  fine  face,  keen  black  eyes 
and  a  very  handsome  nose.  His  hair  was  black  and  he  had 
a  very  intelligent  and  sprightly  expression,  and  a  fine 
broad  forehead. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. 

IN  JUNE,  1827,  Captain  Harney  was  ordered  to  join 
with  his  company  the  forces  under  General  Atkinson, 
who  were  serving  against  the  hostile  Winnebagoes  in 
Wisconsin. 

The  causes  of  this  war  are  obscure,  but  it  probably  grew 
out  of  the  agreement  on  the  part  of  the  whites  to  protect 
the  Indians  from  hostiles  while  on  their  way  to  and  frcm 
the  trading  posts.  In  the  summer  of  1827  a  party  of  Chip- 
pewas,  twenty-four  in  number,  on  a  tour  to  Fort  Snelling, 
were  surprised  by  a  band  of  Sioux,  who  killed  and  wounded 
eight  of  them.  The  commandant  at  Fort  Snelling  captured 
four  of  the  Sioux  and  delivered  them  over  to  the  Chippe- 
was,  who  immediately  put  them  to  death.  Red  Bird,  a 
chief  of  the  Sioux,  in  revenge,  made  war  on  the  Chippewas, 
but  was  defeated,  much  to  the  ridicule  and  scandal  of  him- 
self as  a  warrior.  He  then  determined  to  make  war  on  the 
white  settlements  in  revenge  for  his  previous  defeat,  and  in 
company  with  Black  Hawk  and  one  or  two  other  Indians 
attacked  a  solitary  settlement  on  Prairie  du  Chien  and 
killed  two  men.  Shortly  after  this  they  attacked  two  keel- 
boats  which  had  been  conve\'ing  commissary  stores  to  Fort 
.SnelHng.  They  were  not  successful  in  the  capture  of  the 
boats,  but  they  killed  two  men  and  wounded  four  others. 

In  September,  1827,  General  Atkinson,  with  a  brigade  of 
regulars  and  militia,  marched  against  the  hostile  and  pred- 
atory Indians  and  succeeded  in  capturing  both  Red  Bird 
and  Black  Hawk.  They  were  held  in  prison  for  trial  at  a 
special  term  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court.  Red  Bird 
died  in  prison.      Black   Hawk  was  tried  for  the  attack   on 


^%c^s'^\\^ 


BLACK  HAWK. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OP  ILLiliCIS 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  73 

the  boats,  and  was  discharged  for  want  of  evidence  to  con- 
vict him.  There  was  a  year's  delay  in  the  trial,  in  which 
time  the  Indians  were  confined  in  prison.  An  Indian  can 
meet  death  with  stoical  fortitude,  but  long  and  inglorious 
imprisonment  he  regards  as  the  refinement  of  barbarity 
more  inhuman  than  slow  torture.  Red  Bird,  chafing  under 
the  restraints  of  the  prison,  died  just  before  his  tardy  trial 
was  to  have  been  had.  Black  Hawk  survived  and  was 
acquitted,  but  the  iron  had  entered  into  his  soul. 

The  war  with  the  Winnebagoes  was  a  brief  one.  The 
tribes  were  at  war  with  one  another,  and  these  feuds  were 
incessantly  breaking  out  into  private  murders,  in  which 
case  they  preferred  resorting  to  private  vengeance  to 
claiming  the  separate  protection  of  the  white  people  under 
their  treaty.  An  Indian  is  not  envious  or  malignant.  He 
does  not  rejoice  in  the  death  and  misfortune  of  his  enemy. 
But  with  him  it  is  a  luxury  to  kill,  when,  according  to  his 
code,  revenge  is  bis  due  and  his  duty. 

Captain  Harney,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  campaign, 
which  resulted  in  the  capture  of  Red  Bird  and  Black  Hawk, 
returned  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  where  he  remained  until  the 
fourth  day  of  November,  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  elegant 
and  polite  society  of  St.  Louis,  among  the  fair  ones  of 
whom  his  gallantry,  his  graces  of  person  and  manner,  made 
him  an  especial  favorite.  This  was  the  period  of  life  when, 
with  the  blessings  of  health  and  youth,  with  an  exuberance 
of  animal  spirits,  he  was  capable  of  enjoying  life  at  a  post 
with  the  greatest  zest.  It  was  only  a  just  compensation  for 
the  perils  and  arduous  labors  of  the  campaign  to  give  way 
to  the  promptings  of  joyous  youth  and  nature,  in  the  social 
enjoyments  for  which  men  in  military  life  are  so  well  fitted. 
With  an  established  reputation  as  a  soldier,  and  a  rank  at 
that  time  high  in  the  army  for  a  young  man,  he  was,  of 
course,  well  received  by  a  people  always,  and  still  distin- 
guished for  their  warm  hospitality. 

In  November  he  received  a  leave  of  absence  which  gave 


74  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

him  leisure  to  go  to  the  Capitol  and  indulge  in  the  gay  and 
fashionable  enjoyments  of  Washington  City.  In  January, 
1828,  he  returned  to  duty  at  Jefferson  Barracks,  with  his 
regiment.  In  March,  1828,  he  marched  with  his  command 
— two  companies — to  Fort  Crawford,  in  Minnesota,  where 
he  remained  until  June,  1828,  and  was  then  removed  to 
Fort  Winnebago  on  Green  Bay. 

It  was  at  this  latter  place  that  he  first  met  Mr.  Jefferson 
Davis,  then  a  second  Lieutenant  in  the  United  States  army, 
between  whom  there  was  formed  a  warm  personal  friend- 
ship, which,  founded  on  mutual  esteem,  has  lasted,  undis- 
turbed by  the  stirring  and  trying  scenes  through  which  they 
have  each  since  passed,  for  fifty  years.  Mr.  Davis  has 
often  spoken  with  pleasure  of  his  association  with  Captain 
Harney  in  the  army,  and  is  pleased  to  relate  many  incidents, 
illustrative  of  the  manliness  and  intrepidity  of  his  charac- 
ter. Among  them,  is  the  story  of  his  chasing  a  dog  that 
trespassed  on  his  garden.  Captain  Harney  took  great 
delight  in  cultivating  a  garden  at  the  fort,  and  would  allow 
no  trespassers  or  intruders.  He  always  kept  more  or  less 
a  pack  of  fleet  hounds  for  hunting  the  noted  game  with 
which  the  country  abounded.  One  of  these  hounds  had 
taken  a  fancy  to  disport  himself  in  the  Captain's  garden. 
The  hound  was  too  valuable  to  be  shot,  and  the  only  way 
in  which  he  could  be  punished  was  by  the  sportsman's 
method  of  a  sound  flogging  with  a  ramrod.  But  the  hound 
was  too  wary  to  come  in  convenient  reach,  so  the  Captain 
had  to  forego  the  punishment  or  catch  him.  The  dog 
darted  off  at  full  speed  on  the  open  plain.  Captain  Harney 
started  after  him.  The  result  was  a  fair  race  in  which  the 
Captain,  in  a  little  over  a  half-mile,  beat  the  fleet-footed 
hound  and  ca[)tured  him,  and  at  once  administered  to  the 
wily  and  unfaithful  brute  a  sound  flogging. 

In  the  winter  of  1829-30,  Captain  Harney  was  stationed 
at  Portage-des-Sioux,  between  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin 
Rivers.     While  at  the   Portage  he  volunteered  to  take  his 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  75 

company  to  the  pineries,  where  he  cut  the  timber  to  build 
Fort  Winnebago.  The  timber  was  made  into  rafts  on  the 
ice,  and  in  the  spring  was  duly  floated  down  to  the  fort. 
While  in  this  duty  Captain  Harney  had  his  pack  of  hounds, 
and  enjoyed  his  spare  time  in  hunting  the  abundant  game 
the  wilderness  afforded.  On  the  arrival  of  the  rafts,  in  the 
spring  of  1830,  Fort  Winnebago  was  built. 

It  was  at  Fort  Winnebago,  during  the  winter  of  1830, 
that  Captain  Harney  had  another  foot-race  with  an  Indian, 
which  gave  occasion  to  much  harmless  and  good-natured 
merriment.  We  quote  from  a  published  account  of  this 
affair  as  follows  : 

Harney  had  the  reputation  of  being  the  swiftest  runner 
in  the  army,  as  well  as  the  best  Indian  fighter.  He  was  a 
strict  disciplinarian,  but  not  one  of  the  "  stuck-up  "  sort  so 
common  nowadays.  He  would  often  mingle  with  his  men, 
when  not  on  duty,  and  laugh  and  joke  with  them  on  terms 
of  familiarity,  and  went  so  far  at  times  as  to  compete  with 
them  in  the  exciting  sport  of  foot-racing.  An  impression 
prevailed  at  one  time  that  almost  any  Indian  could  outrun 
a  white  man  ;  but  General  Harney  believed  that  he  could 
beat  any  red  rascal  that  wore  moccasins,  and  whenever  he 
met  a  warrior  who  boasted  of  his  fleetness  of  foot,  he  took 
great  pleasure  in  giving  him  a  trial,  and  always  came  out 
ahead.  Only  once  did  he  fail  to  reach  the  winning  post 
before  his  adversary,  and  that  was  by  a  "  foul."  The  affair 
occurred  at  Fort  Winnebago  in  the  winter  of  1830,  when 
Fox  River  was  frozen  over  and  the  weather  was  very  cold. 
An  Indian  had  committed  some  breach  of  the  rules  of  the 
garrison,  for  which  Harney,  then  a  Captain,  concluded  to 
administer  a  flogging.  He  always  believed  in  giving  every 
man  a  "  fair  shake,"  white  or  red,  and  on  this  occasion  he 
conducted  Mr.  Lo  some  distance  up  the  river,  and  giving 
him  a  hundred  yards  the  start,  told  him  if  he  reached  a 
certain  point  without  being  overtaken,  he  would  escape  the 
flogging.     The  race  was  on  the  ice,  which  at  some  places 


^6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

was  thinner  than  at  others,  on  account  of  the  formation  of 
"  air  holes."  Both  men  wore  moccasins,  and  both  were 
stripped  and  belted  for  the  race,  Harney  swinging  a  cow- 
hide in  his  hand,  with  which  he  confidently  expected  to 
accelerate  the  movements  of  the  Winnebago  on  overtaking 
him.  At  the  word  "go"  both  started  at  full  speed,  the 
Indian  doing  his  best  to  save  his  hide,  and  the  white  man 
anxious  to  preserve  his  reputation  as  a  runner.  Harney 
gained  rapidly  on  the  warrior,  and  was  getting  ready  to 
swing  his  rawhide,  when  the  cunning  savage  made  an 
oblique  movement  toward  a  spot  where  the  ice  was  thin. 
Being  of  much  lighter  weight  than  his  partner,  he  passed 
over  the  dangerous  place  in  safety,  but  as  soon  as  Harney 
stepped  upon  the  thin  ice  it  was  shivered  like  glass,  and 
down  went  the  tall  Captain,  sinking  into  the  cold  water  like 
a  sea  lion.  Being  a  good  swimmer,  a  few  strokes  brought 
him  to  the  edge  of  the  thick  ice,  and  clambering  upon  it 
he  made  his  way  to  his  quarters,  spangled  with  icicles,  and 
as  mad  as  a  buffalo  bull.  He  lost  his  cowhide  in  the  water, 
but  that  was  a  small  matter,  as  Mr.  Winnebago  never  re- 
turned to  the  fort  while  the  Captain  remained  there.  Cap- 
tain Harney's  foot-race  afforded  "  old  Tw'iggs "  occasion 
for  many  a  joke,  and  it  was  a  long  time  before  he  heard  the 
last  of  it. 

The  ordinary  duties  of  the  routine  at  a  military  post  for 
two  years,  signalized  by  no  military  event,  was  all  that  oc- 
curred till  1832.  We  find  General  Harney  at  Fort  Arm- 
strong, in  Illinois,  at  Rock  Island. 

In  the  meantime,  in  June,  1830,  the  Indians  had  some  of 
them  sold  their  land  and  removed  to  reservations  prepared 
for  them  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  Sacs  and  Foxes,  the 
Sioux,  Omahas,  lowas  and  Ottawas,  among  them  Black 
Hawk,  would  not  consent  to  the  sale.  Keokuk,  at  that 
time  the  head  chief  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  had  been  active 
and  instrumental  in  making  this  treaty,  and  was  using  his 
influence  with  the  Indians  to  insure  its  observance  and  ac- 


THE   BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  Jj 

complishment.  Black  Hawk  was  informed,  while  at  Rock 
Island  on  a  trading  expedition,  that  his  tribe  were  expected 
to  remove  west  of  the  Mississippi.  He  was  determined  not 
to  give  up  his  country,  and  went  to  work  organizing  an 
opposition  to  Keokuk  and  the  other  warriors  who  favored 
migration.  The  white  settlers  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Black  Hawk's  country  behaved  badly  to  his  people.  They 
robbed  and  beat  some  of  them  in  a  gross  manner.  A  party 
of  white  men  met  Black  Hawk  in  the  woods  hunting,  and 
fell  upon  him  with  clubs.  They  beat  him  till  he  was  lame 
and  disabled  for  several  weeks,  and  there  was  no  remedy. 
These  wrongs  and  outrages,  unprovoked,  undeserved  and 
unrebuked  by  the  authorities,  goaded  the  Indians  to  des- 
peration. The  project  of  emigration  added  to  this  des- 
peration the  deliberate  purpose  of  resistance.  Secret  nego- 
tiations were  opened  with  the  disaffected  in  each  tribe,  and 
they  had  determined  to  resist.  Neapope  was  active  in  pro- 
curing an  alliance  of  the  nations,  and  the  prophet  Wato- 
skieskiek  sent  Black  Hawk  word  that  he  had  receivied 
wampum  from  the  Chippewas,  Pottowattomies,  Ottawas  and 
Winnebagoes,  and  besides  that  they  would  have  aid  and 
.protection  from  the  British  in  Canada. 

Keokuk  could  not  withstand  the  reproaches  of  his  peo- 
ple, and  repented  that  he  had  sold  his  country  and  prom- 
ised to  migrate  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Black  Hawk  was 
willing  to  part  with  the  lead  mines  if  he  could  only  be  left 
in  his  old  village  where  his  people  had  lived  so  long.  This 
attachment  to  his  country  is  an  honorable  and  noble  exam- 
ple of  his  patriotism.  Keokuk  made  an  effort  to  effect  the 
revision  of  the  treaty  with  the  American  Government,  but 
without  success,  of  course.  With  the  strong  hope  that 
they  would  be  permitted  to  retain  their  villages,  the  Sacs 
set  out  for  their  winter  hunt  in  the  fall  of  1830,  and  while 
gone  the  white  people  came  and  possessed  them,  turning 
their  wives  and  children  out  without  a  home  or  a  lodge  to 
cover  them.     The  tribe  encamped  on  the  Mississippi,  while 


yS  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  intruders  had  their  villages.  This  was  insufferable  to 
Black  Hawk,  and  the  tribes  resolved  to  repossess  them- 
selves of  their  villages.  They  returned  ;  the  white  settlers 
not  being  strong  enough  to  drive  them  off,  agreed  that  they 
would  live  and  plant  together.  But  their  contact  and  inter- 
course ^\  .th  the  whites  exposed  them  to  every  species  of 
fraud.  They  were  debauched  with  whisky  and  cheated  out 
of  their  personal  effects.  The  lands  had  been  sold,  the 
purchasers  came  to  claim  their  property.  Black  Hawk  and 
his  band  refused  to  obey  the  order  to  cross  the  ^lississippi. 
During  all  this  anxious  time  he  and  his  people  carefully 
refrained  from  any  act  of  violence  or  bloodshed.  They 
were  determined  not  to  be  the  aggressors. 

The  white  settlers  and  the  purchasers  of  the  lands  claim- 
ed the  protection  of  the  Government,  and  demanded  the 
removal  of  the  recussant  bands.  By  the  treaty  the  Indians 
were  allowed  to  remain  and  occupy  the  lands  as  long  as 
they  remained  unsold.  The  tribes  who  had  crossed  the 
Mississippi,  under  Keokuk  and  other  chiefs,  returned  and 
took  possession  of  the  unsold  lands.       • 

The  clamors  of  the  white  settlers  reached  the  ears  of  the 
Governor  of  Illinois,  and  in  May,  1831,  Governor  Reynolds, 
from  Belleville,  the  then  capital,  wrote  to  General  Gaines, 
commanding  the  Western  department,  that  he  was  appre- 
hensive of  an  outbreak  of  the  Indians  and  an  invasion,  and 
that  the  hostile  Sacs  were  threatening  the  region  about 
Rock  Island.  He  stated  that  he  had  called  out  seven  hun- 
dred militia  to  repel  the  invasion  of  the  hostile  Indians; 
that  the  said  militia  were  to  be  mounted  and  would  be 
ready  in  fifteen  days,  and  asked  the  Governor's  co-opera- 
tion. General  Gaines,  who  was  not  startled  by  Governor 
Reynolds'  dispatches,  for  the  Governor  seems  to  have  been 
greatly  excited,  if  not  alarmed,  replied  that  he  would  give 
his  attention  to  the  Indians,  and,  if  he  needed  them,  would 
avail  himself  of  the  seven  hu. tired  volunteers  offered  him. 
He  proceeded   to   Rock   Island  with  a  sufficient  force,  and 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  79 

soon  succeeded  in  settling  the  invasion  without  bloodshed. 
We  give  General  Gaines'  account  of  the  situation: 

"  I  have  visited  the  Rock  River  villages,  with  a  view  to 
ascertain  the  localities,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  Indians.  They  confirm  me  in  the  opinion  I  had 
previously  formed,  that,  whatever  may  be  their  feelings  of 
hostility,  they  are  resolved  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  their 
tomahawks  and  fire-arms  except  in  self-defence.  But  few 
of  their  warriors  were  to  be  seen — their  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  their  old  men  appeared  anxious,  and  at  first 
somewhat  confused,  but  none  attempted  to  run  off.  Hav- 
ing previously  notified  their  chiefs  that  I  would  have  noth- 
ing more  to  say  to  them,  unless  they  should  desire  to 
inform  me  of  their  intention  to  move  fortliivitli,  as  I  had 
directed  them,  I  did  not  speak  to  them,  though  within  fifty 
yards  of  many  of  them.  I  had  with  me  on  board  the  steam- 
boat some  artillery,  and  two  companies  of  infantry.  Their 
village  is  immediately  on  Rock  River,  and  so  situated  that 
I  could  from  the  steamboat  destroy  all  their  bark  houses 
(the  only  kind  of  houses  they  have)  in  a  few  minutes,  with 
the  force  now  with  me,  probably  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 
But  I  am  resolved  to  abstain  from  firing  a  shot  without 
some  bloodshed,  or  some  manifest  attempt  to  shed  blood, 
on  the  part  of  the  Indians.  I  have  already  induced  nearly 
one-third  of  them  to  cross  the  Mississippi  to  their  own  land. 
The  residue,  however,  say,  as  the  friendly  chiefs  report,  that 
they  never  will  move ;  and  what  is  very  uncommon,  their 
women  urge  their  hostile  husbands  to  fight  rather  than  to 
move  and  thus  to  abandon  their  homes." 

But  this  state  of  things  did  not  last  long.  On  the  7th 
day  of  June,  Black  Hawk  met  General  Gaines  in  council 
and  frankly  told  him  he  would  not  remove  from  his  lands, 
and  further,  that  he  was  not  afraid  of  his  troops.  He  and 
his  warriors  came  to  this  council  in  their  war  paint,  and 
armed  as  if  they  expected  an  attack.  Black  Hawk  had 
been  deceived  into  the  belief  that  he  would  have  active 
support  from  the  Kickapoos,  Pottovvattomies,  and  Winne- 
bagoes,  but   General  Gaines  was  better' informed,  and  was 


80  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

satisfied  that  not  more  than  two  hundred  warriors  from 
these  tribes  would  be  found  with  the  Sacs.  On  the  25th 
of  June,  1 83 1,  the  Ilhnois  volunteers  arrived.  The  Indian 
allies  of  Black  Hawk  soon  after  left  for  the  other  side  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  American  General  took  possession 
of  the  Sac  village. 

On  the  day  following,  June  27th,  Black  Hawk  signified, 
by  a  white  flag,  his  desire  to  parley,  which  resulted  in  a 
treaty.  The  Indians  had  been  promised  corn  in  the  place 
of  the  corn  left  standing  in  their  own  fields,  but  the  corn 
was  furnished  in  quantities  insufficient  to  supply  their 
wants,  and  a  party  of  Sacs  returned  to  the  east  side  of  the 
Mississippi  to  steal  corn  from  their  own  fields,  and  a  series 
of  troubles  began  which  resulted  in  bloodshed.  The  treaty 
was  broken  by  both  parties  the  same  year. 

Hostilities  began  again,  in  the  spring  of  1832,  in  petty 
skirmishes  with  the  whites  and  with  the  IMenomine 
Indians,  twenty-eight  of  whom  were  killed  by  the  Sacs. 
Black  Hawk  appeared  with  his  band  on  Rock  River,  and 
moved  leisurel)'  up  the  stream,  disobeying  General  Atkin- 
son's command  to  leave  the  country.  He  said  he  was  going 
to  the  Prophet's  village  to  make  corn,  and  the  whites  might 
attack  him  if  they  wanted  to.  Major  Stillman,  with  two 
hundred  and  seventy  men,  started  about  the  13th  of  May, 
on  a  march  of  discovery,  towards  Sycamore  Creek,  Black 
Hawk  sent  three  warriors  with  a  white  flag  to  meet  the 
American  detachment  and  invite  them  to  his  camp.  But 
the  Major  took  the  warriors  prisoners,  and  disregarded  the 
flag.  The  flag  of  truce  not  returning,  Black  Hawk  sent  five 
other  warriors  to  ascertain  what  had  become  of  the  men 
who  bore  it.  These  five  were  discovered,  pursued,  and  two 
of  them  killed.  The  party  who  killed  the  two  warriors 
returned  to  the  main  body  and  reported.  Major  Stillman 
determined  to  attack  the  Indians  at  once,  and  moved  for- 
ward with  precipitation  and  confusion  upon  the  hostile 
camp  on  the  Sycamore.  Black  Hawk,  in  the  meantime,  had 


STILLMAN  S  DEFEAT. 


W£  UBmr 
OF  m 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  83 

heard  from  the  survivors  of  the  five  of  the  kiUing  of  his 
warriors.  He  had  but  forty  braves  with  him,  the  rest  of 
his  band  being  out  hunting.  When  a  sufficient  number  of 
the  Americans  had  passed  the  Sycamore,  the  Indians  rush- 
ed upon  them  and  soon  put  them  to  flight.  Only  forty 
men  defeated  two  hundred  and  seventy,  and  the  retreat  was 
a  rout. 

This  affair,  wretchedly  managed  by  Major  Stillman, 
shows  that  the  whites  were  wantonly  the  aggressors,  and 
the  shedders  of  the  first  blood.  It  created  a  profound  sen- 
sation, both  among  the  whites  and  Indians.  Black  Hawk's 
runners  bore  the  news  to  the  Sacs  and  Missouris  twenty- 
four  hours  in  advance  of  the  dispatches  to  the  whites.  It 
nerved  the  martial  spirit  of  the  Indians,  who  felt  an  hon- 
orable sympathy  with  their  brethren  and  pride  in  their 
prowess. 

Governor  Reynolds  called  out  two  thousand  more  of  the 
militia  to  subdue  the  Indians  and  drive  them  out  of  the 
State,  and  a  great  many  Menominies  and  Sioux,  enemies 
of  the  Sacs,  were  enlisted  in  the  service  to  exterminate 
their  enemies. 

The  defeat  of  Major  Stillman's  forces  opened  to  the  set- 
tlers a  scene  of  horror  and  bloodshed.  The  Indians  butch- 
ered and  plundered,  and  a  wide-spread  panic  pervaded  the 
frontiers. 

We  have  given  thus  far  the  account  of  the  opening  of 
the  Black  Hawk  war,  because  it  is  justice  to  the  truth  of 
history  to  vindicate  that  warrior,  who,  savage  as  he  was, 
was  possessed  of  a  patriotism  which  we  must  admire,  and 
displayed  the  highest  and  most  intrepid  qualities  of  the 
soldier.  The  responsibility  of  that  war  was  clearly  with  the 
whites,  and  in  every  phase  of  its  inception,  until  precipi- 
tated by  Major  Stillman,  the  Indians  displayed  a  forbear- 
ance, patience  and  humanity  that  should  have  been  emu- 
lated by  the  civilized  foe  and  oppressor. 

Captain  Harney,  off  in  the   forests  and  pineries  of  the 


84  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Wisconsin,  or  engaged  in  the  fortification  of  Fort  Winne- 
bago, had  Httle  knowledge  of  the  events  that  were  trans- 
piring and  were  being  so  rapidly  precipitated.  During  the 
summer  of  1832  he  reported  to  Fort  Armstrong,  at  Rock 
Island,  and  found  the  busy  preparations  being  made  for  the 
Indian  war.  Here  he  met  with  Colonel  Taylor,  who  had 
just  arrived,  with  whom  he  established  a  friendly  intimacy, 
destined  afterwards  to  be  cemented  in  many  scenes  of  dan- 
ger and  hardship  in  the  service  in  Florida  and  Mexico. 
Here  he  also  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  tall,  gaunt  young 
militia  Captain  from  Illinois,  who  was  noted  as  a  genial  and 
witty  companion.  At  home  he  was  a  country  lawyer  in 
fair  practice,  and  had  responded  to  Governor  Reynolds' 
call  for  volunteers,  to  win  some  military  laurels,  which 
were  at  that  time  regarded  as  a  good  capital  upon  which 
to  commence  life  in  politics.  This  militiaman,  whose  dry 
jokes,  not  alwa)'s  of  the  most  chaste  character,  but  never 
bad,  convulsed  the  convivial  mess  table,  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  The  friendship  established  between  him  and 
Captain  Harney,  formed  in  camp,  lasted  during  the  life  of 
]\Ir.  Lincoln  and  was  as  cordial  as  the  intimacy  then  and 
still  existing  between  him  and  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis.  These 
two  characters,  in  after  years,  got  to  fill  a  large  place  in 
the  public  attention.  Lincoln,  nor  Taylor,  who  was  at  the 
time  Captain  Harney's  guest,  either  of  them  had  any  sus- 
picion that  they  should  be  rulers  of  the  United  States,  and 
Davis  was  more  concerned  about  his  prospects  of  promo- 
tion ultimately  to  a  Captaincy,  after  long  years  of  service, 
than  dreaming  of  leading  fifteen  States  into  active  and 
open  war  against  the  Union.  The  intimacy  between  Cap- 
tain Harney  and  Captain  Lincoln,  their  stature  and  peculi- 
arities, won  them  the  cognomen  among  the  soldiers  of 
"  the  two  ponies."  Their  congenial  and  convivial  tem- 
per, Lincoln's  wit  and  his  good  jokes,  which  Harney  en- 
joyed as  much  in  the  hearing  as  Lincoln  in  the  telling, 
made  them  inseparable  when  duty  afforded  the  leisure  for 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  85 

enjo}'ment.  Nor  was  Captain  Harney  the  sole  listener. 
He  was  possessed  of  a  fund  of  conversation,  and  had  a 
lively  sense  of  a  good  adventure,  of  which  he  had  had 
many.  The  personnel  of  the  two  men  was  alike  only  in 
being  tall.  Harney  had  that  lithe,  easy  grace  which  is 
acquired  by  long  service  and  discipline.  Lincoln  was 
awkward,  and  that  peculiar  countenance,  then  so  full  of  the 
comical  expression  of  a  jolly  joker,  was  by  no  means  hand- 
some. 

In  a  few  days  after  he  reported  at  Fort  Armstrong,  Cap- 
tain Harney  was  sent  on  a  reconnoissance,  and  found  no 
indications  of  the  Indians. 

Soon  afterwards  Harney  procured  leave  of  absence 
from  General  Atkinson  and  came  to  Saint  Louis,  where 
he  had  not  been  for  over  two  years.  On  his  arrival 
he  found  preparations  going  on  for  the  Black  Hawk  war, 
and  without  waiting  for  his  leave  to  expire,  he  returned 
to  his  command,  and  was  ordered  to  Dixon's  Landing, 
an  out-post  not  far  from  the  scene  of  Stillman's  defeat. 
There  he  encamped.  Before  arriving  at  this  landing,  when 
they  reached  Stillman's  Run,  they  learned  that  the  In- 
dians had  crossed  Sycamore  Creek.  Upon  getting  this 
(information,  General  Atkinson  asked  Colonel  Taj'lor  to 
accompany  the  volunteers  under  General  Whitesides  to 
Ottawa,  and  Captain  Harney  was  requested  to  go  along. 
The  volunteers,  since  Stillman's  defeat,  were  very  much 
afraid  of  Black  Hawk,  and  they  were  so  timid  they  could 
not  be  relied  on  for  duty  or  reconnoissances.  They  were 
mustered  out  and  another  levy  made,  which,  with  better 
officers  and  commanded  by  General  Whitesides,  rendered 
better  service.  When  these  new  levies  came  up,  and  a 
second  expedition  was  organized,  the  Indians  had  with- 
drawn and  their  trail  was  lost. 

General  Atkinson  consulted  Captain  Harney,  who  told 
him  that  the  Indians  had  but  one  hiding  place  in  the 
whole  country,  that  it  would  not  be    difficult  to  find,  and 


86  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

that  with  fifty  men  he  would  make  a  reconnoissance.  The 
General  suggested  that  such  a  force  would  be  too  small,  as 
the  party  would  be  in  danger  of  being  cut  off,  and  that  he 
should  take  along  three  hundred  Pottowattomies.  The 
chief  of  the  Pottowattomies  refused  because  he  thought  the 
force  too  small.  Harney  therefore  started  with  his  fifty 
men  and  some  friendly  Menominies.  He  soon  came  upon 
the  trail,  which  indicated  from  the  signs  that  the  enemy 
were  not  far  off.  The  Menominies  counseled  a  retreat, 
but  the  Captain  persisted,  whereupon  all  the  Indians  left 
him  but  one,  who  told  him  he  would  stand  by  and  die  with 
him.  This  was  an  Indian  with  whom  he  had  once  had  a 
disperate  hand-to-hand  fight,  in  which  Captain  Harney  had 
overcome  and  disarmed  him.  In  a  short  time  they  came 
upon  a  burning  fire,  when  they  returned  with  the  informa- 
tion that  the  Indians  were  retreating.  It  was  soon  con- 
firmed by  dispatches  from  General  Dodge  to  the  effect  that 
the  Indians  were  in  full  retreat. 

A  forced  march  was  at  once  ordered,  and  the  troops  soon 
came  upon  the  Indians  posted  in  a  strong  position  near 
an  old  trading  post  on  the  Wisconsin  River,  and  were  at- 
tacked by  Colonel  Taylor's  forces.  The  Indians  made  con- 
siderable resistance,  but  continued  their  retreat  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  where  they  made  a  final  stand.  They  were 
pursued  by  the  entire  force  of  General  Dodge.  On  being 
overtaken  at  the  Mississippi  River,  the  final  and  most  des- 
perate battle  was  fought — the  battle  of  Bad-Ax.  At  this 
battle  the  Indians  were  driven  across  the  Mississippi  river, 
and  the  war  ended. 

Black  Hawk,  mounted  upon  his  war  pony,  command- 
ed his  warriors  in  person,  and  displayed  a  lofty  courage 
and  consummate  skill  as  a  general  in  the  disposition  and 
management  of  his  forces.  He  was  present  everywhere 
in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  urging  his  men  to  deeds  of 
valor  by  his  own  personal  example  and  disregard  of  dan- 
ger.    But  his  skill  and    courage  were  of  no  avail,  for  his 


x^v- 


BI.ACK  HAWK  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  BAD  AX. 


THE  LIBRARY 
OP  THE 
UKIVERSITV  CF  III 


THE   BLACK  HAWK  WAR.  89 

warriors  could  not  withstand  the  impetuous  advance  of  the 
American  troops.  They  were  driven  from  hill  to  hill,  but 
under  the  e}'e  of  their  vigilant  leader  still  kept  up  a  brisk 
firing  from  every  point  commanding  the  ground.  They 
were  finally  driven  back  upon  the  main  body,  posted  on 
the  bank  of  the  river,  where  they  made  a  last  desperate 
stand  and  joined  in  one  general  effort  to  defend  themselves 
there  or  die  on  the  ground.  But  the  troops  made  a  rush 
upon  them,  killing  all  who  came  in  their  way  and  driving 
the  others  into  the  river.  Many  swam  across  and  escaped, 
while  others  were  shot  in  the  water,  and  about  fifty  women 
and  children  were  captured.  Thus  ended  the  Black  Hawk 
war. 

When  Black  Hawk  saw  that  the  day  was  hopelessly  lost, 
he  fled  up  the  river  and  concealed  himself  in  the  woods, 
where  he  was  captured  two  days  afterwards  by  some 
Sioux  warriors  and  delivered  by  them  to  General  Atkin- 
son. The  latter  sent  him  to  Jefferson  Barracks  in  charge 
of  Lieutenant  Osborn  Cross,  where  he  remained  several 
months,  after  which  he  and  several  of  his  companions  were 
sent  on  a  tour  through  the  principal  cities  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  them  the  extent  and 
power  of  the  nation,  and  the  futility  of  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  Indians  to  make  war  on  the  white  people. 

General  Henry  Dodge,  who  was  so  conspicuous  a  leader 
in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  was  one  of  the  eminent  and  noble 
men  of  the  West  during  the  first  part  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, and  General  Harney  takes  unusual  pride  in  counting 
him  among  his  best  and  warmest  friends.  General  Dodge 
was  born  at  Vincennes,  Indiana,  back  of  this  century.  He 
came  to  Missouri  while  it  was  yet  a  territory  and  located 
in  Ste.  Genevieve,  where  he  was  respected  and  esteemed  in 
the  highest  degree  by  his  fellows.  He  was  elected  a  dele- 
gate to  the  convention  called  to  frame  the  first  constitution 
for  the  State  of  Missouri.  President  Monroe  appointed  him 
U.  S.  Marshal  for  the  State.     At  a  later  date  he  removed 


90  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

to  Wisconsin,  General  Jackson  having  in  the  meantime  ap- 
pointed him  Territorial  Governor  and  Superintendent  of 
Indian  Affairs.  When  Wisconsin  was  admitted  as  a  State 
General  Dodge  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
and  in  all  his  official  service  discharged  his  duty  with  honor 
to  himself  and  the  public.  He  was  a  half-brother  of  Dr. 
Linn,  a  distinguished  Senator  from  Missouri.  And  the 
people  of  St.  Louis  can  still  claim  with  pride  a  share  in  the 
distinction  and  character  of  the  family  of  General  Dodge  in 
the  person  of  IMrs.  Rebecca  Sire,  the  General's  niece,  a 
lady  of  high  social  standing  in  the  city,  noted  for  her 
excellencies  of  character  and  for  her  generous  nature  in 
contributing  more  than  her  share  of  charities  and  benefac- 
tions to  those  upon  whom  fortune  and  favor  have  frowned. 

Captain  Harney,  after  the  close  of  the  Indian  war,  was 
granted  leave  of  absence  for  some  months,  which  he  spent 
in  Saint  Louis.  Here  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Miss 
Mary  Mullanphy,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Hon.  John 
Mullanphy,  a  distinguished  citizen,  who,  having  served  in 
the  French  army,  had  come  to  America  after  the  fall  of 
Napoleon,  and  acquired  a  large  fortune.  He  was  a  devout 
Roman  Catholic,  and  founded  in  his  lifetime,  and  by  his 
will,  many  churches  and  public  charities,  which  are  a  last- 
ing monument  to  his  name.  Captain  Harney  became  engag- 
ed to  Miss  Mullanphy,  and  their  nuptials  were  afterwards 
solemnized  on  the  27th  day  of  January,  1833.  Mrs.  Har- 
ney died  in  Paris  in  i860.  The  fruits  of  this  marriage  are 
John  M.  Harney,  Esq.,  of  St.  Louis,  Eliza  Harney,  Countess 
De  Noue,  whose  husband  is  a  Colonel  in  the  French  army, 
and  Anna  B,,  married  to  the  Viscount  de  Thury,  an  officer 
in  the  French  Navy. 

During  his  leave  of  absence  he  went  to  Washington 
City,  and  called  on  President  Jackson.  The  President 
appointed  him,  without  solicitation,  Paymaster  in  the  army, 
with  the  rank  of  Major.  This  commission  bears  date  May 
1st,   1833.     He  was  on   duty  as   Paymaster  until  August, 


THE  BLACK  HAWK  WAR. 


91 


1836.  While  on  this  duty,  which  was  not  much  to  his 
taste,  and  attended  with  many  risks,  without  any  compen- 
sating chances  for  reputation  in  service,  General  Ashley 
was  a  member  of  Congress  from  Saint  Louis.  He  intro- 
duced a  bill  for  the  better  defense  of  the  Western  frontier. 
It  provided  for  raising  the  Second  regiment  of  Dragoons, 
of  which  Colonel  David  E.  Twiggs  was  appointed  Colonel, 
and  Wharton  Rector,  of  Arkansas,  was  appointed  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel. Rector,  who  seems  to  have  been  unambitious 
of  distinction  in  that  line,  would  rather  be  a  Paymaster,  with 
rank  of  Major,  than  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  regiment, 
while  Harney,  who  became  a  Major  on  his  appointment  as 
Pa\'master,  was  eager  for  the  appointment.  As  the  first  step 
toward  the  consummation  of  their  wishes.  Rector  declin- 
ed, and  Harney  resigned  his  commission.  Major  Harney, 
accompanied  by  Rector,  then  went  to  see  Genaral  Jackson, 
at  the  Hermitage,  who  gratified  both  by  appointing  Major 
Rector  as  Paymaster  and  Major  Harney  as  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel of  the  Second  Dragoons.  His  commission  is  dated 
August  15,  1836. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR. 

___/LORIDA,  the  land  of  flowers,  is  a  bold  peninsula  that 
^A  juts  out  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  Its  southern  extremity  and  eastern  coast  are 
washed  by  the  Gulf  stream,  a  warm  current  of  water 
from  the  tropics,  which  is  thrown  from  the  region 'of  the 
equator  along  the  eastern  coast  of  South  America  into  the 
Gulf,  and  thence  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  These  waters, 
being  confined  to  the  narrow  passes  between  the  islands  of 
the  West  Indian  Archipelago  and  the  mainland,  flow  with 
a  current  of  four  knots  an  hour  between  Trinidad  and  the 
mainland  of  Venezuela,  thence  through  the  Caribbean  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  whence  they  pour  out,  washing,  as  we 
have  said,  the  cOast  of  Florida.  The  tropical  waters  of 
the  Gulf  stream  give  to  Florida  a  mild  and  salubrious  cli- 
mate, and  since  its  settlement  it  is  sought  b}'  invalids  for 
health  and  comfort  and  a  winter  residence. 

Saint  Augustine  is  the  oldest  European  settlement  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  Spaniards,  in  search  of  gold  and 
pearls,  and  of  the  fabulous  Fountain  of  Youth,  were  its  first 
explorers  and  settlers. 

About  forty  years  after  Christopher  Columbus  discovered 
the  Western  continent,  De  Soto  landed  his  expedition  on 
this  peninsula.  The  accounts  given  of  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants  by  Garcillasso  and  the  "  Portugese  gentlemen  " 
who  accompanied  De  Soto,  describe  them  as  enjox-ing  a 
high  degree  of  prosperity,  and  in  a  state  of  semi-ci\iliza- 
tion.  The  example  of  the  Spaniards,  and  their  cruelties  and 
rapacity,  did  not  tend  to  increase  their  civilization,  nor  to 
give  them   exalted    ideas    of   European    character.     Thev 

92 


AN  FLEET  SEEN  BY  DE  SOTO. 


THE  imm 

OF  THE 

mm^m  of  Illinois 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  95 

soon  learned  to  regard  the  white  man  as  their  natural 
enemy,  and  from  being  peaceful,  indolent  and  mild,  they 
became  wild,  warlike  and  brutal. 

The  Territory  of  Florida  was  acquired  by  treaty  from 
Spain,  in  1 821,  as  we  have  before  stated.  During  the  war 
with  England,  the  savages  had  been  incited  to  make  pred- 
atory war  against  the  United  States,  and  were  under  the 
influence  of  British  emissaries,  two  of  whom,  Arbuthnot 
and  Ambuster,  General  Jackson  summarily  executed. 
After  the  pacification  they  remained  at  peace  with  the 
United  States,  and  white  settlements  were  made  within  the 
borders  of  the  Territory. 

In  1835  a  treaty  was  made  by  which  the  tribes  agreed 
to  remove  to,  and  accept  a  reservation  provided  for  them 
in  another  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States,  west 
of  the  Mississippi.  They  accordingly  sent  their  emissaries 
to  examine  their  new  hunting  grounds,  who  reported  favor- 
ably, and  all  diepositions  were  made  for  their  emigration. 
But,  unfortunately,  Hext,  the  principal  chief,  a  man  of 
ability  and  integrity,  died  at  this  juncture,  and  Osceola,  a 
turbulent,  drunken,  and  ambitious  man,  availed  himself  of 
the  occasion  to  excite  them  to  war. 

It  is  almost  certain  that  in  the  original  difficulties,  which 
resulted  in  so  much  bloodshed,  the  Americans  were  at  fault. 
The  Government  could  not  control  the  bad  and  dishonest 
white  people  who  persecuted,  defrauded  and  debauched  the 
Indians.  Osceola,  therefore,  had  little  difficulty  in  persuad- 
ing his  people  to  break  the  treaty,  as  they  were  naturally 
reluctant  to  leave  their  hunting  grounds  and  swamps. 

The  lawless  attempt  of  some  white  men  at  cowhiding 
some  fierce  Indians,  led  to  bloodshed,  and  the  Indians  were 
soon  on  the  war-path.  The  savages  murdered  one  Dalton, 
a  mail  carrier,  on  the  6th  of  August,  1835,  and  committed 
other  outrages,  and  the  chiefs  refused  to  deliver  up  the 
offenders  to  justice.  They  subsequently  murdered  a  friendly 
chief  named  Charley  Amaltha  and  his  daughter.     This  was 


96  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 


« 


done  by  a  war  party  of  Mikasaukies,  of  which  Osceola  was 
in  command  in  person.  The  frequency  of  these  lawless 
acts  induced  settlers  to  break  up  and  abandon  their  farms. 

General  Clinch,  then  in  command,  determined  to  chastise 
the  Indians,  and  organized  a  force  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
regulars,  with  six  hundred  and  fifty  militia  furnished  by  the 
Governor  of  Florida.  With  this  force  he  marched  against 
the  Indians  on  the  Withlacoochee  River. 

In  December  of  that  year  Major  Dade  marched  from 
Tampa  Bay  with  two  companies  of  infantry  and  some  artil- 
ler}-  for  Camp  King.  On  his  route  he  was  ambushed  and 
surprised,  and  his  whole  detachment,  except  two  men,  were 
massacred.  This  disaster  produced  a  profound  sensation 
thrt)ughout  the  country. 

The  Indian  forces  were  composed  of  Seminole  warriors 
and  runaway  negroes,  who  had  taken  to  the  swamps  and 
fastnesses  to  escape  from  servitude,  and  they  were  as  in- 
trepid and  blood-thirsty  as  the  savages  themselves. 

This  massacre  demonstrated  not  only  the  savage  and 
vindictive  spirit  of  the  Indians,  but  the  defensibility  of  their 
swamps  and  fens,  and  that  a  mode  of  defensive  warfare  on 
their  part  could  be  adopted  which  would  defy  the  ordinary 
modes  of  attack,  and  could  prolong  a  predator}-  war  almost 
indefinitely.  The  massacre  of  Major  Dade's  detachment, 
which  has  no  parallel  except  the  recent  massacre  of  Gen- 
eral Custer's  command  on  the  Big  Horn,  under  circum- 
stances which  showed  that  the  gallant  officer  himself  had 
omitted  no  precautions  of  either  Indian  or  civilized  war- 
fare, gave  the  Indians  an  unbounded  hope,  and  they  ral- 
lied at  once  and  resumed  their  depredations,  until,  sparing 
neither  friend  nor  foe  of  the  white  race,  Florida  became  in 
a  manner,  at  least  on  the  unprotected  frontiers,  untenable 
to  the  settlers.  The  region  near  San  Augustine  was  de- 
populated of  five  hundred  families.  Their  settlements  were 
attacked  and  their  negroes  were  carried  off  to  become  sav- 
ages themselves,  and  slaves  to  the  Indians. 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  97 

There  were  several  skirmishes  and  battles  in  which  the 
whites  often  got  a  dear-bought  advantage,  but  the  Indians 
were  securely  fortified  in  their  swamps  and  forests,  and  like 
the  old  Britons  in  Wales,  were  not  finally  conquered  until 
their  ultimate  translation  to  their  reservation  in  the  Indian 
Territory,  where  they  now  live,  an  intelligent  and  civilized 
community  ;  and  the  war  did  not  cease  until  the  administra- 
tion of  President  Tyler. 

Florida  is  the  Italy  of  America.  The  Gulf  of  Mexico  is 
as  the  Mediterranean ;  and  its  own  gulf,  a  part  of  the  Mex- 
ican Gulf,  stands  on  its  western  borders,  while  on  the  east 
the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  stream  are  to  it  as  the  Adriatic.  It 
has  the  Archipelago  of  the  East  Indies,  but  it  has  not  the 
Grecian  peninsula  and  the  Bosphorus  on  its  east.  But  it 
has  its  pontine  marshes  and  its  campagna.  Healthy  as  it  is 
now,  it  was,  in  1835,  unhealthy  to  the  white  man  as  the 
campagna  and  pontine  marshes  were  before  the  days  of 
King  Theodoric.  In  1835  the  everglades,  the  lakes,  rivers 
and  forests  of  Florida,  were  a  secure  retreat  for  the  preda- 
tory savage  who  felt,  and  in  justice  had  a  right  to  feel, 
that  he  inherited  from  immemorial  time  and  from  his 
ancestors  the  ownership  and  right  to  enjoy  his  lands  and 
hunting  grounds.  The  forests  were  clothed  in  a  drapery  of 
moss  which  hung  in  graceful  festoons  from  the  topmost 
limb  of  the  giant  oak  and  the  stately  evergreen,  that 
swept  the  earth.  These  beautiful  wreaths  of  moss,  some- 
times fifty  feet  long,  clothed  the  giant  oak  of  the  forest 
and  gave  a  ready  and  convenient  covering  to  the  ambushed 
savage.  They  were  called  hammocks,  and  against  the 
lurking  enemy  secreted  in  them  no  ordinary  tactics  could 
avail.  He  was  not  only  undiscovered,  but  undiscoverable. 
Besides  forests  draped  in  moss,  the  swamps  and  lakes,  the 
impenetrable  inlets  and  natural  canals,  with  their  islands, 
floating  and  permanent,  gave  ever  a  ready  shelter  and 
retreat  to  the  Indian  who  was  acquainted  with  all  their 
labyrinths.     This  was  not  only  the  fact  as  to  the  interior  of 


98    ,  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  peninsula,  but  the  Seminoles  were  acquainted  with  the 
nautical  arts  to  the  extent  that  they  ventured  in  their  frail 
craft,  which  they  handled  with  skill,  even  among  the  keys 
and  islands  within  thirty  or  forty  miles  of  the  coast. 

The  Seminoles,  being  the  runaways  from  the  hardy  tribes 
of  North  Georgia,  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  who  took 
refuge  with  the  Florida  Indians,  were  a  hardy  and  deter- 
mined race  of  savag^es.  Taking  advantage  of  the  swamps, 
fastnesses,  forests  and  hammocks  of  Florida,  they  pro- 
tracted their  defensive  war  for  over  seven  years,  against  the 
whole  force  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true  the  Govern- 
ment did  not  support  the  war  with  sufficient  supplies  and 
troops,  and  divided  counsels  and  a  vacillating  policy  at 
Washington  did  much  to  prolong  it,  but  it  is  likewise  true 
that  a  more  determined,  bloody  and  obstinate  defense  was 
never  made  by  any  race  of  people.  It  was  a  war  in  which 
all  the  resources  of  the  wily  savage  were  brought  into 
requisition,  and  in  which  his  heroism  and  we  must  in  justice 
say,  patriotism,  flared  up,  like  the  d\'ing  candle,  before  his 
light  went  out  forever. 

On  the  15th  day  of  August,  1836,  Major  Harney  was 
promoted  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  Second  Dragoons, 
was  relieved  from  duty  as  Paymaster,  a  service  ill  suited 
to  his  active  temperament,  and  ordered  to  rejoin  his  regi- 
ment in  the  field.  He  reported  to  his  commanding  officer, 
and  took  his  proper  place  as  an  officer  of  the  Second 
Dragoons.  The  army  in  Florida  was  at  this  time  under  the 
command  of  General  Thomas  Jesup,  whom  he  joined  in 
January,  1837.  He  left  Washington  City,  after  settling  his 
accounts,  in  the  month  of  December,  in  company  with 
Major  Fountleroy  and  Captains  Bean,  Gordon  and  Lieuten- 
ant Hamilton,  all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  Second  Dra- 
goons, and  reported  to  Black  Creek.  The  bravest  and 
ablest  Generals  who  had  preceded  General  Jesup,  Scott 
and  Gaines,  had  accomplished  but  little  in  the  two  years 
hostilities  had  been   carried  on.     On  the  6th  day  of  Feb- 


IXniAN  WAR  DANCE. 


THE  LIBRARY 
OF  THE 

uKivERsnv  ov  \LLraois 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  IQI 

ruary,  1837,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Harney  arrived  at  Camp 
Monroe,  on  Lake  Monroe,  a  place  afterwards  called  Fort 
Mellon.  He  reported  to  Brevet  Lieutenant-Colonel  Fan- 
ning, with  three  hundred  recruits,  but  on  reporting  to  the 
commander  he  ascertained  that  by  his  rank  and  date  of 
commission  he  was  entitled  to  the  command  of  the  forces. 
Colonel  Fanning  was  greatly  disturbed  at  this  and  expressed 
a  desire  to  retain  command  and  win  some  laurels.  Colonel 
Harney,  in  consideration  of  his  age,  and  out  of  respect  for 
Colonel  Fanning,  waived  his  right  to  command,  and  under- 
took cordially  to  support  the  veteran  officer,  and  left  him 
in  the  command. 

Harney  had  had  some  experience  in  Indian  warfare  in 
Florida,  Wisconsin  and  elsewhere,  was  well  acquainted  with 
their  habits,  and  knew  that  constant  vigilance  was  the  only 
condition  on  which  safety  could  be  secured.  His  active 
energy  and  vigilance  induced  him  to  make  in  person  a 
reconnoissance.  He  soon  discovered  signs  of  the  presence 
of  Indians  lurking  in  the  neighborhood,  and  on  returning  to 
camp  he  advised  Colonel  Fanning  that  they  would  be 
attacked  probably  that  night.  Colonel  Harney  also  sug- 
gested to  Colonel  Fanning  the  propriety  of  fortifying  their 
camp  by  throwing  up  breastworks ;  he  urged  that  his 
troops  were  raw  recruits,  and  unused  to  active  service  ; 
that  the  breastworks  would  giv' e  them  confidence  and  keep 
them  in  discipline ;  otherwise  they  would  be  liable  to 
become  panic-stricken  at  the  first  fire.  His  suggestions 
were  adopted,  hasty  breastworks  were  thrown  up  which 
covered  their  camp,  and  pickets  were  thrown  out  in  the 
direction  of  the  enemy,  with  instructions  to  give  the  alarm 
of  the  Indians'  approach.  The  troops  were  instructed  to 
spring  to  their  arms  and  take  position  upon  the  first  alarm, 
and  to  shoot  low  so  as  to  waste  no  ammunition,  and  fire 
effectually.  Everything  was  in  readiness,  and  the  camp 
lay  down  to  sleep  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  of  February. 
A  little  before   daylight  the  alarm  gun  was   fired,  and  the 


102  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

pickets  ran  in.  The  enemy,  who  had  expected  to  surprise 
the  camp,  found  the  troops  in  readiness.  The  enemy's 
plan  of  attack  was  judicious ;  his  right  rested  on  the  lake 
below  the  camp,  and  his  line  extended  to  an  arm  of  the 
lake  above,  where  his  left  rested.  Captain  Thomas,  on  the 
steamboat  Santee,  opened  fire  on  the  enemy's  right  flank 
with  a  six  pounder  and  dislodged  him,  but  the  left  and  cen- 
ter continued  the  attack  for  three  hours  before  they  were 
finally  repulsed  and  retired.  The  report  of  Colonel  Fan- 
ning is  full,  and  recognizes  the  meritorious  and  gallant  con- 
duct of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Harney : 

BREVET    COLONEL    FANNING's    OFFICIAL    REPORT. 

Camp  Monroe,  07i  Lake  Monroe,  Florida,    \ 
February  g,  iSjy.  f 

General  :  On  yesterday  morning,  a  little  before  daylight, 
we  were  aroused  by  the  warwhoop  all  around  us.  The 
enemy's  right  rested  on  the  lake  above  us,  and  his  line  ex- 
tended round  our  front,  his  left  resting  on  the  lake  below. 
Our  men  sprang  to  their  breastworks.  A  sharp  contest 
ensued.  Second  Lieutenant  Thomas,  of  the  4th  artillery, 
was  directed  to  go  on  board  the  steamboat  Santee,  serve 
the  six  pounder,  and  direct  his  fire  upon  the  right  of  the 
enemy.  Our  flank  in  that  direction  was  soon  cleared.  The 
enemy  pertinaciously  hung  upon  our  front  and  right  flank 
for  nearly  three  hours,  and  then  retired,  wearied  of  the 
contest.  Our  men,  being  recruits,  at  first  wasted  a  great 
deal  of  ammunition,  and  it  was  with  much  difficulty  the 
officers  prevented  them  from  throwing  away  their  shots. 
They  soon,  however,  became  collected,  and  in  the  end 
behaved  extremely  well.  In  fact,  the  enemy  was  hand- 
somely repulsed.  The  extensive  fire  of  the  enemy,  and 
the  traces  he  left  behind,  show  him  to  have  been  about 
from  three  to  four  hundred  in  force. 

The  brave  Captain  Mellon,  of  the  2d  regiment  of  artil- 
lery, a  few  minutes  after  the  combat  commenced,  received 
a  ball  in  his  breast,  and  fell  dead  at  his  post.  We  last  night 
gave  to  his  remains  all  we  could  give,  our  tears  and  "  a 
soldier's  grave."  Captain  Mellon  entered  the  service  at 
the  commencement  of  the  last  war  with  England,  and  has 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  IO3 

ever  since  remained  in  it.  He  has  left  no  property,  and  I 
know  he  has  left  a  widow  and  four  children  to  deplore  his 
loss. 

Passed  Midshipman  McLaughlin,  serving  with  the  army, 
ready  by  my  side  to  convey  orders,  received  a  ball  in  his 
breast.  The  surgeon  cannot  yet  pronounce  his  fate,  but 
has  strong  hopes  of  his  recovery.  This  gentleman  had 
charge  of  the  supplies  for  the  detachment,  as  well  as  of 
those  for  the  army  expected  here.  He  has  performed  his 
duties  with  great  zeal  and  ability.  On  every  occasion  of 
apparent  danger,  I  have  found  him  on  the  spot,  ready  to 
perform  any  service  of  hazard.  Let  us  hope  he  may  yet 
live  to  grace  the  profession  he  has  chosen. 

On  examining  the  ground,  we  found  no  dead  enemies, 
yet  we  found  several  trails  apparently  made  by  the  drag- 
ging off  of  the  dead  bodies.  We  also  found  several  belts 
and  straps  covered  with  blood,  a  small  pouch  of  bullets, 
and  some  scalping  knives.  It  is  most  probable  the  enemy 
suffered  more  than  ourselves.  It  is  true  we  are  without  the 
trophies  of  victory,  but  this  is  no  reason  that  the  officers 
whom  I  have  had  the  honor  to  command,  and  whose  gal- 
lant bearing  I  have  witnessed,  should  not  receive  honorable 
mention.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Harney,  commanding  the 
four  companies  of  dragoons,  displayed,  during  the  contest, 
the  greatest  boldness  and  vigor,  and  inspired  his  newly 
enlisted  men  with  great  confidence.  I  have  at  all  times 
received  from  him  the  most  energetic  support.  With  the 
officers  of  his  battalion  I  have  every  reason  to  be  well  sat- 
isfied. My  eye  was  upon  every  one,  and  I  discovered 
nothing  but  firmness  and  confidence  in  all.  In  justice  to 
them  their  names  must  be  mentioned :  Captain  Gordon, 
Captain  Bean,  1st  Lieutenant  John  Graham,  1st  Lieutenant 
Howe,  1st  Lieutenant  Hamilton,  1st  Lieutenant  Blake,  2d 
Lieutenant  McNeil,  2d  Lieutentant  Thorton,  2d  Lieutenant 
Kingsbury,  and  2d  Lieutenant  May. 

On  the  fall  of  Captain  IMellon,  Captain  Vinton,  of  the  3d 
artillery,  assumed  the  command  of  the  two  companies  of 
artillery.  I  have  long  known  his  great  military  attainments. 
On  this  occasion  I  witnessed  his  conduct  and  courage. 
First  Lieutenant  Davidson  took  the  command  of  Mellon's 
company  during  the  engagement.     It  could  not  have  tallen 


I04  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

into  better  hands.  I  have  already  spoken  oT  the  service 
rendered  by  2d  Lieutenant  Thomas,  of  the  4th  artillery. 
He  has  always  volunteered  his  services  on  every  dangerous 
scouting  party.  Lieutenant  Piercy,  of  the  Navy,  Captain 
of  the  friendly  Indians,  with  his  Indian  force,  fought  among 
the  regular  troops ;  and  he  was  always  foremost  in  danger. 
He  has,  at  all  times,  volunteered  his  services  for  any  difficult 
or  hazardous  enterprise. 

Assistant  Surgeon  Laub  dressed  the  wounded  under  the 
fire  of  the  enemy.  In  fact,  I  have  never  seen  the  sick 
soldier  more  promptly  or  faithfully  attended  to,  than  since 
this  detachment  left  Volusia.  Lieutenant  Dusenbery, 
quartermaster  to  the  expedition,  had  been  sent  previously 
to  the  attack  to  Volusia,  and  could  not  be  present  at  the 
time.  His  duties  have  been  very  arduous,  and  he  has  dis- 
charged them  with  vigor,  zeal  and  ability.  Paddy  Carr,  the 
Creek  chief,  fought  well.  He  has  generally  headed  the 
scouting  parties,  and  has  performed  those  laborous  and  dan- 
gerous duties  with  great  promptitude  and  cheerfulness. 

I  cannot  end  this  letter  without  publicly  expressing  my 
thanks  to  Captains  Brooks  and  Peck,  of  the  steamboats 
Santee  and  Essayons.  They  have  unhesitatingly  pushed 
their  boats  through  difficult  channels,  and  unknown  waters, 
into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country.  I  must  be  pardoned 
this  prolixity.  If  I  have  mentioned  all,  it  is  because  all 
deserve  mention.  Never  was  officer,  charged  with  a  deli- 
cate and  hazardous  enterprise,  served  with  more  zeal 
and  promptitude. 

You  will  herewith  receive  official  lists  of  the  killed  and 
wounded.  To  the  wounded,  passed  Midshipman  ]\IcLaugh- 
lin  should  be  added.  The  "John  Stoney"  is  just  arrived. 
Lieutenant  Dusenbery  hands  me  a  letter  from  Lieutenant 
Chambers,  aid-de-camp.  By  this,  I  learn  that  hostilities  are 
to  cease  for  the  present,  and  that  this  detachment  is 
directed  to  fall  back  upon  Volusia. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  etc.,     . 

A.  C.  W.  FANNING, 
Bvt.  Lt.  Col.  Com.  Detachment. 

The  camp  fortified  at  Lake  Monroe  was  called  Fort 
Mellon,  in  memory  of  the  gallant  Captain  Mellon,  of  the 


SCOUTING   IN-   FLORIDA. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLKIOIS 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  IO7 

Second  artillery,  who  was  killed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
engagement. 

Colonel  Harney  retained,  after  this  affair,  command  of 
Fort  Mellon,  and  between  the  8th  day  of  February  and  the 
1st  of  May,  gathered  the  fruits  and  results  of  the  victory. 
He  succeeded  in  pacifying  many  of  the  tribes,  and  made 
treaties  by  which  they  came  in  and  gave  themselves  up 
with  their  women  and  children. 

General  Jesup,  in  his  report  to  the  War  Department, 
expresses  a  great  deal  of  confidence  in  the  situation  of 
things  on  the  8th  day  of  May,  1837,  but  he  apprehends 
more  danger  from  the  imprudence  of  white  citizens  than 
from  the  hostility  of  the  Indians.  The  citizens  of  Florida 
who  had  lost  slaves  by  the  predatory  raids  of  the  Indians  on 
their  plantations,  seemed  to  regard  it  as  the  whole  duty  of 
the  army  to  catch  runaway  negroes,  and  the  press,  from  a 
safe  distance,  and  secure  from  danger,  was  clamorous  in 
criticism  of  the  manner  in  which  the  war  was  conducted. 

Among  the  results  of  the  gallant  defense  of  Fort  Mellon, 
was  the  voluntary  surrender  of  the  noted  chief  Osceola  or 
Powell,  who  had  been  most  active  in  breaking  the  treaty  in 
1835,  which  precipitated  the  war.  This  chief,  who  has  be- 
come famous,  subsequently  violated  his  faith  again  with  the 
whites,  and  was  imprisoned  for  the  balance  of  his  life,  at 
Fort  Moultrie,  in  1838.  His  name  and  adventures  have 
been  the  theme  of  much  romantic  interest,  and  have  in- 
spired the  muse  of  some  tolerated  American  poets.  Coe 
Hajo,  Tuskeneha  and  the  Wildcat,  a  chief  named  Philip 
and  his  son,  surrendered  themselves.  They  had  been  un- 
able to  plant  any  corn  in  the  swampy  fastnesses,  impreg- 
nable to  all  enemies  save  famine,  so  vigorously  and  vigi- 
lantly had  Colonel  Harney  and  the  American  officers  and 
their  coadjutors  carried  on  the  war. 

We  insert  the  report  of  Colonel  Harney  to  General  Jes- 
up, and  General  Jesup's  note,  enclosing  it  to  the  Secretary 
of  W^ar : 


I08  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Headquarters  Army  of  the  South,  "I 
Tampa  Bay,  May  8,  1837.      / 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  enclose  a  copy  of  a  despatch 
just  received  from  Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney,  who  com- 
mands at  Fort  Mellon,  on  Lake  Monroe.  The  great  body 
of  the  Seminole  nation  are  concentrated  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  Powell  will  be  highly  useful  in  bringing  the  In- 
dians in,  and  in  hastening  their  embarcation.  Nothing  is 
now  to  be  apprehended,  unless  it  be  the  imprudence  of  cit- 
izens of  Florida.  The  officious  interference  of  some  of 
them  has  already  embarrassed  the  service,  and  from  the 
public  papers  I  discover  that  certain  citizens  of  Florida, 
who,  I  presume,  were  unwilling  to  trust  their  persons  nearer 
to  the  Seminoles  than  Charleston,  are  denouncing  me  and 
my  measures. 

I  have  only  to  say,  in  reply  to  them,  that  I  can  have  no 
agency  in  converting  the  army  into  negro-catchers,  particu- 
larly for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  evidently  afraid  to 
undertake  the  recapture  of  their  property  themselves. 

Micanopy,  Jumper,  and  Cloud,  are  here  with  a  part  of 
their  people.  Holatoochee  is  collecting  his  people,  and 
will  be  in  by  the  20th.  Alligator's  people  were  assembled, 
but  dispersed  in  consequence  of  a  report  that  they  were  to 
be  executed  so  soon  as  they  should  place  themselves  in 
our  power.     They  are  reassembling. 

I  am,  sir,  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Thos.  S.  Jesup, 
Major  Genej'al  covinianding. 
The  Hon.  J.  R.  Poinsett,  Secretary  of  War,  Washington. 


Fort  Mellon,  East  Florida,  May,  1837. 
Sir:  The  chiefs  Coehahjo,  Tuskeneha,  Ossinyahholoh, 
(Powell,)  and  the  Wildcat,  (Philip's  son,)  arrived  yesterday, 
with  a  great  many  of  their  warriors  and  women.  Philip  is 
too  sick  to  go  about,  and  of  course  did  not  attend  here  ; 
but  his  son  represents  him,  (a  smart  fellow.)  Sam  Jones 
has  not  yet  come  in,  but  was  expected  last  night.  I  will 
not  close  this  letter  till  I  know  whether  he  has  arrived  or 
not.  The  council  which  they  held  terminated  well ;  there 
was  not  a  man  present  who  made  any  objections  to  the  talk 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR. 


109 


which  Micanopy  sent  them ;  his  word  is  law,  and  none  dare 
to  deviate  from  it. 

Coe  Hajo  begs  me  to  say  to  you  that  he  has  the  same 
talk  now  that  he  had  when  he  was  with  you,  and  begs  you 
to  give  them  time ;  they  were  hurrying  all  they  could,  and 
if  you  do  not  push  them  everything  will  go  on  without 
any  trouble.  I  had  a  private  talk  with  them  last  night,  and 
they  are  all  anxious  to  get  off  as  soon  as  possible  ;  they  dis- 
like to  start  for  Tampa  before  the  people  all  assemble. 

I  have  this  moment  learned  that  Sam  Jones  was  at  coun- 
cil, (they  told  me  last  night,  but  I  did  not  know  the  name.) 
Coe  Hajo  expects  his  brother  in  every  hour,  and  I  will 
pledge  my  life  that  all  will  go  well  if  indulged  a  little 
longer.  Coe  Hajo  and  Powell  are  now  with  me ;  Powell 
slept  in  my  tent  last  night  with  me,  and  they  both  say  that 
they  are  almost  sure  that  it  will  not  be  more  than  a  week 
before  they  are  all  on  the  road  to  Tampa  Bay.  He  says 
that  he  told  you  that  he  would  be  at  Tampa  Bay  by  this 
time,  but  it  was  impossible;  and  he  begs  you  not  to  think 
that  he  is  not  an  honest  man,  for  he  has  done  all  he  can,  and 
has  succeeded  in  getting  them  all  together,  except  a  few 
who  are  scattered  ;  and  that  they  (the  main  body)  will  not 
wait  for  them  if  they  are  not  here  before  a  week.  Some  of 
the  scattered  people  will  go  immediately  to  Tampa,  and 
not  come  by  this  place. 

Coe  Hajo  is  encamped  about  twenty  miles  from  this 
place.  Powell  is  about  fifteen  miles  from  this  ;  he  will  join 
Coe  Hajo,  where  they  will  all  remain  until  they  start  for 
Tampa.  Coe  Hajo  wishes  me  to  say  to  you  that  he  has  got 
strong  men  to  help  him;  meaning  Tuskeneha,  Powell,  and 
Wildcat ;  and  that  they  all  put  their  heads  together  to  do 
business. 

In  your  last  letter  you  say  you  do  not  wish  me  to  let 
them  deal  with  the  sutler;  this  placed  me  in  a  very  awk- 
ward situation.  I  told  them  some  time  since  that  I  would 
send  the  boat  for  goods  for  them ;  they  begged  me  to  do  so, 
as  they  are  literally  naked,  many  of  them ;  of  course,  they 
all  expected  to  be  allowed  to  purchase  some  clothing.  I 
directed  the  sutler  not  to  trade  with  them;  but  from  the 
representations  and  importunities  from  the 'chiefs,  and  the 
opinion  of   the   officers,   I   thought  it   advisable  to  permit 


no  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

them  to  trade,  inasmuch  as  there  is  hardly  a  shirt  apiece 
for  those  that  want  them.  The  sutler  has  hardly  anj-thing 
in  his  store,  compared  with  their  (the  Indians')  wants.  If 
they  had  anything  like  a  full  supply,  I  would  have  sent 
them  off.  I  know  that  if  you  were  here  you  would  not  have 
persisted,  and  I  beg  and  hope  that  you  will  approve  the 
course  I  have  pursued. 

Your  idea  is  that  it  may  be  the  means  of  some  dela>- ; 
but  I  know  that  it  will  not  be  the  means  of  one  moment's 
delay.  They  will  be  in  the  neighborhood  at  least  five  or 
six  days,  and  they  will  buy  everything  the  sutler  has  before 
to-morrow  night.  One  of  the  parties  expected  has  this 
moment  shaken  hands  with  me.  They  arrived  in  Coe  Ha- 
jo's  camp  last  night:  some  of  his  band  are  yet  behind,  but, 
as  he  has  not  all  the  chiefs  here,  he  will  return  immediately 
for  the  balance.  The  chief  who  has  just  arrived  is  Tuck- 
elochehahjo,  with  seventy-three  warriors.  I  have  been 
tr\'ing  to  learn  from  those  now  present  the  number  of  war- 
riors in  this  part  of  the  country;  and,  to  my  great  surprise, 
I  find  that  there  is  not  less  than  tzvcnty-fi't'C  hundred  red 
li'arriors,  good  zvarriors ;  and  not  including  lads,  etc.,  or 
negroes,  who  fight  as  well  as  the  best  of  them. 

P.  S. — More  news.  The  chief  just  arrived  is  Hicks;  he 
has  about  seventy  warriors  still  out,  and  he  states  that  he 
was  on  his  way  to  Tampa  with  his  whole  partv  or  band, 
when  he  was  met  by  Captain  Bell.  He  asked  Captain  Bell 
to  go  with  him  to  his  camp,  where  he  had  a  paper  from 
you.  When  going  there  the  ftfficers'were  talking  among 
themselves,  and  saying  how  they  intended  to  secure  him ; 
that  they  would  tie  him,  put  him  in  chains,  etc.,  etc.  He 
understood  what  they  said,  and  concluded  that  they  in- 
tended to  kill  him  in  some  way,  and  of  course  he  deter- 
mined to  escape  from  them  if  he  could ;  and  that  he  would 
rather  be  shot  by  them  than  to  be  in  irons,  when  he  was 
trying  to  do  the  best  he  could  ;  and  that  he  had  received 
the  talk  from  Micanopy,  and  as  soon  as  he  could  get  his 
people  together  he  started  for  Tampa,  and  would  have  been 
there  long  since  if  he  had  not  met  that  foolish  man. 

Everything  is  going  on  as  well  as  can  be  expected,  con- 
sidering the  nature  of  the  country  and  their  numbers.  You 
can  form  an  idea  of  the  numbers  of  the  women  and  chil- 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  Ill 

dren.  The  chiefs  cannot  tell  me  how  many  negroes  they 
have  belonging  to  them.  They  do  not  wish  to  turn  over 
the  negroes  belonging  to  the  whites  till  they  are  about  to 
set  off  for  Tampa,  as  many  of  them  would  run  away  before 
they  could  be  brought  in. 

I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  make  out  the  sense  of  this  let- 
ter. I  have  a  great  deal  to  say,  and  they  communicate  in 
such  a  manner  to  me,  and  so  many  different  subjects,  that 
I  am  a  good  deal  confused,  and  am  compelled  to  stop, 
though  I  have  told  you  everything  of  importance. 

Major  General  T.  S.  Jesup, 

Comnianding  in  Florida. 

To  use  the  language  of  General  Jesup,  in  a  private  letter 
to  Hon.  Lewis  F.  Linn,  United  States  Senator  from  Mis- 
souri, dated  August  27,  1842,  speaking  of  General  Harney, 
"  In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1837,  except  during  a  short 
leave  of  absence,  he  was  constantly  and  actively  engaged 
in  the  most  useful  service.  During  that  summer  and 
autumn,  though  my  force  was  small  and  the  Indian  force 
comparatively  large,  hardly  a  single  depredation  was 
allowed  to  be  committed  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  country 
— there  were  no  Indian  corn-fields  cut  up  by  the  troops  that 
season,  it  is  true,  for  so  active  and  energetic  were  their 
operations  that  not  a  stalk  of  corn  was  allowed  to  grow 
anywhere  but  on  the  farms  of  the  citizens.  If  we  could 
not  catch  the  Indians,  we  kept  them  constantly  running  and 
distant  from  the  frontiers." 

In  the  beginning  of  May  the  situation  was  most  promis- 
ing. All  the  tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  Mellon  had 
agreed  to  make  peace.  A  treaty  had  been  formally  made 
and  signed  at  Fort  Dade,  on  the  6th  day  of  March,  1837, 
by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  principal  chief,  Micanopy, 
and  the  United  States.  The  following  is  the  text  of  the 
treaty : 


112  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Capitulation  of  the  Seminole  nation  of  Indians  and  their 
allies,  by  Jumper,  Halatoochee  or  Dav\-,  and  Yaholoo- 
chee,  representing  the  principal  chief,  Micanopy,  and 
fully  empowered  by  him,  entered  into  with  Major-Gen- 
eral Thomas  S.  Jesup,  commanding  United  States  forces 
in  Florida,  this  sixth  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-seven. 

Article  I.  The  chiefs  abov^e  named,  in  behalf  of  them- 
selves and  the  nation,  agree  that  hostilities  shall  cease  im- 
mediately, and  shall  not  be  resumed. 

Article  II.  They  agree  and  bind  themselves  that  the 
entire  nation  shall  immediately  emigrate  to  the  country 
assigned  to  them  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
west  of  the  Mississippi. 

Article  III.  Until  they  emigrate,  the}-  will  place  in 
the  possession  of  the  general  commanding  the  troops, 
hostages  for  the  faithful  performance  of  their  engage- 
ments. 

Article  IV.  The  Indians  shall  immediately  withdraw 
south  of  the  Hillsborough.  Those  found  north  of  that  river 
and  a  line  drawn  from  Fort  Foster  due  east  from  it  to  the 
ocean,  without  permission  of  the  general  commanding,  after 
1st  of  April,  will  be  considered  hostile. 

Article  V.  Major-General  Jesup,  in  behalf  of  the  United 
States,  agrees  that  the  Seminoles  and  their  allies,  who  come 
in  and  emigrate  to  the  west,  shall  be  secure  in  their  lives 
and  property  ;  that  their  negroes,  their  bona  fide  property, 
shall  accompany  them  to  the  west ;  and  that  their  cattle 
and  ponies  shall  be  paid  for  by  the  United  States  at  a  fair 
valuation. 

Article  VI.  That  the  expenses  of  the  movement  west 
shall  be  paid  by  the  United  States. 

Article  VII.  That  the  chiefs,  warriors,  and  their  fami- 
lies and  negroes,  shall  be  subsisted  from  the  time  they  as- 
semble in  camp,  near  Tampa  Bay,  until  they  arrive  at  their 
homes  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  twelve  months  there- 
after, at  the  expense  of  the  United  States. 

Article  VIII.  The  chiefs  and  warriors,  with  their  fami- 
lies, will  assemble  in  the  camp  to  be  designated  by  the 
commanding  general,  as  soon  as  they  can,  and  at  all  events 
by  the  lOth  of  April.     Yaholoochee  will  come  in  at  once 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  1  13 

with  his  people,  and  the  other  towns  will  follow  as  fast  as 
possible. 

Article  IX.  Transports  will  be  ready  to  take  the  Indians 
and  their  negroes  off  to  their  western  homes. 

Article  X.  Micanopy  will  be  one  of  the  hostages.  He 
is  to  visit  the  commanding  general,  and  will  remain  near 
him  until  his  people  are  ready  to  move. 

Article  XI.  All  the  advantages  secured  to  the  Indians 
by  the  treaty  of  Payne's  Landing,  and  not  enumerated  in 
the  preceding  articles,  are  hereby  recognized,  and  are  se- 
cured to  them. 

Signed  at  Camp  Dade,  this  sixth  day  of  March,  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  thirty-seven. 

THOMAS  S.  JESUP, 
Major-General  Com.  Army  of  the  South 
Holatoochee  X  or  Davy. 
Hoeth-lee-ma-tee  X 
Jumper  X 

Yaholochee  X  or  Cloud. 
John  Ca-wy-ya,  X  representing  Hal-Patah-Hajo. 

This  treaty  was  made  by  the  Indians  in  good  faith. 
They  had  found  it  impossible  to  plant  their  fields,  and  the 
season  was  at  hand  when  they  must  plant  or  starve.  The 
only  conditions  of  the  peace  were  that  the  Indians  of 
Florida  should  accept  the  reservation  selected  for  them 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  Their  principal  chief,  Micanopy, 
was  to  be  a  hostage  for  the  faithful  fulfillment  of  the  treaty, 
and  that  wise  and  honorable  savage  faithfully  and  honor- 
abl\-  mdertook  to  observe  the  obligations  thereof  He 
sent  to  all  the  tribes,  and  to  all  the  warriors  of  the 
various  tribes,  and  they  came  in  with  their  women  and 
children.  Some  scattered  warriors,  and  negroes  who  feared 
to  be  restored  to  their  owners  in  the  States,  only  remained 
behind,  but  not  in  sufficient  numbers  to  be  of  importance 
or  formidable.  Colonel  Harney  mentions,  in  his  dispatch 
to  General  Jesup,  that  he  estimated,  from  the  information 


114  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

afforded  by  the  Indians,  that  there  were  at  least  twenty-five 
hundred  good  warriors  ready  to  surrender. 

The  advance  guard  of  all  the  tribes  and  war  parties  were 
in  at  Fort  Mellon  and  various  other  posts,  ready  to  move  to 
the  camp  where  they  were  to  remain  until  transported  to 
their  reservation.  The  camp  that  had  been  assigned  them 
was  about  ten  miles  from  Fort  Brooke,  Tampa  Bay.  By  the 
middle  of  April  Micanopy  and  a  large  number  of  his  people 
were  in  camp.  Alligator,  Holatoochee,  Jumper  and  other 
chiefs  were  frequently  in  the  camp  and  all  expressed  the 
greatest  satisfaction  with  the  treaty.  All  preparations  had 
been  made  for  their  transportation  to  New  Orleans,  whence 
they  were  to  proceed  to  their  reservation.  The  embarca- 
tion  was  delayed  from  week  to  week,  at  the  instance  of  the 
chiefs,  who  desired  to  collect  more  of  their  scattered  war- 
riors and  friends  that  they  might  sail  with  them  to  New 
Orleans.  Osceola  had  arrived  at  Fort  Mellon,  where  Col- 
onel Harney  was  in  command.  Powell  had  his  family  with 
him.  He  formally  ratified  the  terms  of  peace  made  by 
Micanopy. 

The  commanding  General  (Jesup)  believed  the  war  was 
over  and  made  his  dispositions  accordingly.  He  dismissed 
his  militia  and  volunteers  to  their  homes,  and  they  were  dis- 
charged out  of  the  service.  The  marines  were  sent  North, 
and  only  the  regular  troops  were  kept  in  places  most  con- 
ducive to  health,  without  regard  to  their  strategic  import- 
ance. The  War  Department  issued  orders  to  the  effect 
that  the  severe  duty  in  which  the  army  in  Florida  had  been 
engaged,  necessitated  repose  for  the  troops. 

War  Department,  May  17,  1837. 

Sir: — From  the  severe  duty  which  has  been  imposed  on 
the  troops  in  Florida,  and  their  suffering,  under  circumstan- 
ces of  peculiar  privation,  in  a  climate  little  congenial  to  the 
health  of  most  of  them,  I  feel  much  concerned  in  their  be- 
half, with  a  disposition  to  afford  them  every  relief  consist- 
ent with  a  just  regard  to  the  service,  as  I  feel  assured  that 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  HJ 

every  portion  of  the  army  serving  in  that  quarter  lias  done 
its  duty  most  faithful!)',  and  is  deserving  of  the  kindest 
treatment. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  ordering  the  regiments  of  artillery 
to  the  Sabine,  as  directed,  you  will,  as  soon  as  circumstan- 
ces will  permit,  allow  the  1st,  2nd,  and  4th  regiments  to 
repair  to  the  posts  assigned  them  by  General  Order  No.  58, 
of  last  year,  where,  it  is  hoped,  they  will  repose,  and  be 
able  to  recruit  their  strength.  The  3d  regiment  of  artiller}-, 
which  is  destined  to  garrison  the  posts  from  Sav'annah  to 
the  INIississppi,  you  will  order  to  Fort  Mitchell,  it  being  a 
healthy  place  ;  or  should  the  whole  of  the  regiment  not  be 
required  for  duty  at  that  place,  during  the  unhealthy  sea- 
son, it  may  be  distributed  among  the  health  stations  assign- 
ed it  in  General  Order  No.  68,  to  wit :  St.  Augustine,  and 
Forts  Pickens  and  Morgan. 

In  communicating  to  you  this  mode  of  relief  to  the 
troops,  it  is  not  intended  to  interfere  with  any  arrangements 
you  may  have  made,  or  may  think  of  making,  for  the  secu- 
rity of  the  country,  or  the  property  belonging  to  the  govern- 
ment ;  but  it  is  intended  to  convey  to  you  an  expression  of 
my  satisfaction  with  the  conduct  of  the  troops,  and  to 
evince  to  them,  through  you,  the  disposition  which  the 
department  feels  to  relieve  them  as  early  as  possible  from 
the  hardships  and  sufferings  which  they  have  so  nobly 
sustained  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  against  the  Semi- 
noles. 

In  sending  the  troops  to  their  stations,  as  here  indicated, 
a  due  regard  should  be  had  to  their  present  positions,  in 
order  to  relieve  them  as  much  as  possible  from  marching 
through  an  unhealthy  country  at  this  season  of  the  year. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c., 

JOEL  R.  POINSETT. 

Major-General  Thomas  S.  Jesup,    "I 
Tampa  Bay,  Florida.  ) 

The  citizens  of  Florida  who  had  been  driven  out  by  the 
fear  of  Indian  depredations,  and  those  whose  plantations 
had  been  despoiled,  were  coming  back  to  claim  their  recap- 
tured slaves  and  commence  again  the  peaceful  pursuits  of 
agriculture,  and  prosperity  began  again  to  be  promised  to 


I  l6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the   land  that  had  been  for  two  years  the  scene  of  savage 
and  predatory  war. 

On  the  6th  of  June,  General  Jesup  informed  the  Govern- 
ment at  Washington  that  the  Indians  who  were  ready  to 
embark  from  Fort  Brooke  Jiad  precipitately  fled.  They 
had  become  homesick,  and  a  spirit  of  disaffection  with  the 
treaty  had  again  spread  among  them.  They  were  unwilling 
to  leave  the  homes  of  their  ancestors,  and  it  had  now  be- 
come so  deep  seated  a  sentiment  that  their  chiefs  were 
unable  to  control  them.  There  was  no  choice  but  expatria- 
tion on  one  hand,  and  the  desolation  of  a  war  of  extermina- 
tion— war  for  which  they  were  little  prepared,  war  which 
promised  nothing  but  suffering,  privation  and  death  ;  but 
they  preferred  the  last  extremity  to  giving  up  their  country. 
A  sentiment,  which  was  a  last  legacy  of  the  Spanish 
owners  of  Florida,  possessed  them,  viz.:  that  they  had  not 
been  ceded  with  the  Territory  of  Florida  to  the  United 
States,  and  that  only  the  lands  in  cultivation  by  the  whites 
had  passed  by  the  sale  of  Florida  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. Coacoochee  and  Osceola,  the  trubulent  and  dis- 
solute chiefs  of  the  i\Iikasaukies,  came  at  midnight  and 
compelled  Micanopy  to  follow  them.  They  had  been 
relieved  from  starvation  and  were  now  well  clothed,  and 
the  entire  camp  were  gone  towards  Paliklahaka  before  day- 
break. The  sickly  season  was  at  hand  and  military  opera- 
tions almost  impossible  for  the  whites.  The  war  was  re- 
newed. The  fact  is  that  Micanopy  and  the  older  chiefs, 
with  a  small  minority  of  the  Seminoles,  desired  to  emigrate 
to  a  place  where  the  people  could  have  peace,  but  the 
younger  warriors  and  the  women,  a  large  majority,  never 
intended  to  observe  the  treaty  longer  than  until  the  crops 
were  advanced  and  their  immediate  distress  was  relieved. 
If  we  overlook  the  bad  faith  in  the  non-observance  of  the 
treaty,  it  must  appear  to  us  as  a  sublime  instance  of  heroic 
patriotism.  But  the  renewed  war  became  of  a  necessity  a 
war  of  extermination,  and  as  such  the  hostile   Indians  ac- 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR. 


117 


cepted  it.     Dispositions  were  immediately  made  for  a  war 
campaign  in  the   fall. 

The  friendly  Creek  Indians,  who  had  served  with  such 
conspicuous  bravery,  had  been  discharged,  and  had  em- 
barked for  their  reservation  in  Arkansas.  The  militia 
had  been  discharged,  and  only  the  regulars  remained 
in  the  field,  except  the  Florida  troops.  Volunteers  were 
called  for  from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama  and  Missouri.  Major  General  Jesup,  in  his  dis- 
patches to  the  Government,  indicates  clearly  that  if  peace 
alone  had  been  the  object  of  the  campaign,  it  could  have 
been  effectually  accomplished,  but  that  emigration  from 
their  country  could  not  be  attained.  He  says  in  his  Gen- 
eral Order  No.  203,  from  Saint  Augustine,  on  the  23d  day 
of  October,  1837: 

"  Had  the  policy  of  our  country  been  limited  to  peace, 
which  in  all  past  history  has  been  the  object  of  every  war 
we  had  waged,  it  had  been  radically  attained.  The  valor 
and  persevering  energy  of  the  troops  forced  the  enemy  to 
pause  in  his  career  of  destruction,  and  agree. upon  the  terms 
of  treaty.  If  that  treaty  has  been  violated,  and  it  has  been 
found  impracticable  to  carry  out  the  plans  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  a  single  campaign,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
more  than  peace  has  been  sought  to  be  obtained ;  that  we 
are  attempting,  for  the  first  time,  the  solution  of  the  diffi- 
cult problem  of  transferring  a  savage  and  a  warlike  people 
from  one  wide-spread  wilderness  to  another.  In  every  pre- 
ceding instance  of  the  emigration  of  an  Indian  nation,  our 
population  had  been  pressing  upon  them,  and  crowding 
them  out  of  their  position,  before  any  effort  had  been  made 
by  the  Government  to  remove  them ;  and  the  Indians  had 
themselves  become  sensible  of  the  necessity  for  removing, 
long  before  they  had  taken  up  the  line  of  march." 

During  the  summer,  and  while  preparations  were  being 
made  for  the  new  campaign,  Colonel  Harney  was  granted 
a  leave  of  absence.     He  was  reheved  of  his  command  in 


Il8  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

August,  and  repaired  to  Saint  Louis,  where  he  spent  the 
time  till  the  first  of  December  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
society  of  his  family. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  FLORIDA  WAR  CONTINUED. 

\  /HK  preparations  for  the  fall  campaign  involved  delay, 
I  but  the  delay  fortunately  only  consumed  the  time  of 
the  hot  and  unhealthy  weather,  in  which  active  opera- 
tions in  the  field  could  not  be  made  except  at  a  sacrifice  of 
health  and  life.  But  this  precious  time  was  of  great  advan- 
tage to  the  hostile  savages.  They  had  acquired  great  ad- 
vantages by  their  treachery,  but  they  were  by  no  means  in 
as  favorable  a  position  for  defense  as  before  the  campaign 
began.  All  the  country  north  of  Lake  Monroe  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  United  States,  and  the  garrisons  of  the  posts, 
although  composed  entirely  of  regulars,  were  in  position  to 
hold  the  country  already  in  hand,  and  the  savages  were 
confined  to  the  region  south  of  Lake  Monroe  and  Tampa 
Bay,  The  country  from  Saint  Augustine  and  the  Suwa- 
nee,  and  from  the  Suwanee  to  Saint  Marks,  formerly  in  a 
state  of  alarm,  was  now  thoroughly  tranquil  and  remained 
secure  during  the  sickly  season,  with  uninterrupted  com- 
munication between  the  posts.  General  Jesup  says  in  the 
General  Order  just  quoted  : 

"Though  all  expected  from  us  by  the  public  may  not 
have  been  achieved,  enough  has  been  done  to  prove  that 
there  is  no  deterioration  in  the  character  and  qualities  of 
the  American  soldier,  whether  of  the  volunteer  corps  or  the 
regular  army;  and  whatever  differences  may  exist  as  to  the 
measures  of  the  commander,  the  pen  of  history,  guided  by 
the  hand  of  justice,  will  not  fail  to  assign  to  the  officers  and 
troops  of  his  command  a  high  place  among  the  champions 
of  their  country's  rights  and  honor." 

As  soon  as  the  treachery  of  Osceola  and  his  confederates 


120  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

had  made  it  apparent  that  the  war  must  be  renewed,  Gen- 
eral Jesup  called  upon  the  Governor  of  Florida  for  militia. 
He  organized  a  mounted  command,  with  which  he  kept 
possession  of  the  country  above  Lake  Monroe,  and  by  his 
diligence  preserved  the  peace  and  protected  the  settle- 
ments from  outrage. 

He  was  making  preparations  to  take  the  offensive  as 
soon  as  the  regular  forces  were  recruited  in  strength  and 
health,  when  he  received  a  message  from  the  Indians,  sev- 
eral of  whom  had  arrived  at  Fort  King,  and  desired  a  talk 
with  him.  He  immediately  proceeded  there,  and  on  the 
19th  and  20th  of  August  held  conferences  with  them.  They 
expressed  a  desire  for  peace,  but  declared  that  a  majority 
of  their  people  were  averse  to  leaving  the  country.  They 
were  told  that  emigration  was  the  only  condition  upon 
which  they  could  have  peace,  and  that  they  must  make  up 
their  minds  to  fulfill  their  treaty,  and  were  instructed  to  use 
the  white  flag  if  they  had  any  further  communications  to 
make, 

Coe  Hajo,  the  principal  chief,  assured  General  Jesup  that 
many  of  the  Seminoles  were  in  favor  of  the  treaty,  but  that 
Sam  Jones  and  Osceola  were  opposed  to  it.  He  stated 
that  the  Indians  would  hold  a  council  on  Saint  John's  River 
in  a  few  days,  and  that  he  would  in  twenty  days  brirfg  the 
General  an  account  of  their  determination.  In  the  mean- 
time he  asked  a  suspension  of  hostilities. 

Coe  Hajo  did  not  return  to  Fort  King  at  the  time  ap- 
pointed, and  the  council  on  the  Saint  John's  was  but  slimly 
attended.  The  Indians  were  kept  in  hand,  committing  but 
few  outrages,  owing  to  the  vigilance  of  the  American  Gen- 
eral, and  the  information  obtained  from  scouts  and  negroes 
indicated  they  were  short  of  ammunition  and  supplies,  but 
that  they  did  not  intend  to  leave  the  country, 

Osceola,  who  had  gone  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney  at 
Fort  Mellon  and  received  subsistence  to  take  his  command 
to  Tampa  Bay,  had  not  only  not  carried  out  and  observed 


FIGHTINC.    IX    FLOKinA. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLIHOIS 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  I  23 

the  treaty,  but  had  prevented  other  chiefs  and  their  tribes 
from  doing  so,  came  in  with  a  party,  as  also  several  other 
chiefs.  They  were  seized  as  prisoners  of  war,  but  treated 
with  every  kindness  compatible  with  their  condition. 

This  effort  to  compel  the  Indians  to  carry  out  the  treaty 
was  one  of  signal  character,  when  it  was  determined  to 
seize  them,  before  they  could  escape  from  the  narrow  lim- 
its at  which  they  were,  into  the  interminable  swamps  and 
make  their  escape.  The  plan  of  capture  was  agreed  upon. 
Colonel  Harney  was  assigned  the  most  important  position 
— the  place  where  the  Indians  would  make  the  greatest 
effort  to  escape — but  the  Colonel,  true  to  his  duty,  let  no 
one  pass  his  way,  and  it  was  only  through  negligence  that 
a  few  escaped  in  another  direction. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  negotiating  without  any  re- 
sults, and  much  promising  to  accept  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
and  emigrate,  but  by  the  first  of  October  it  was  ascertained 
that  the  Indians  were  assembling  in  force  on  the  Upper  St. 
John's  River  and  that  several  roving  bands  were  north  of 
Fort  Mellon  and  Tampa  Bay.  At  this  time  of  the  year 
the  Saint  John's  River  was  navigable  ;  the  Florida  troops 
would  soon  be  discharged  at  the  expiration  of  their  term 
of  service,  and  the  reinforcements  to  take  their  place  were 
only  beginning  to  arrive;  but  active  operations  began,  with 
an  occasional  skirmish  and  the  capture  of  some  prisoners. 

A  delegation  of  Cherokees,  headed  by  John  Ross,  their 
chief,  asked  to  intercede  with  the  Seminoles,  and  this  nego- 
tiation lost  fifteen  days  of  precious  time,  during  which  the 
Saint  John's  River  fell  so  that  it  could  only  be  navigated 
by  boats  propelled  by  poles  and  oars.  Major  Dearborn, 
early  in  December,  was  sent  forward  to  establish  a  post  at 
the  head  of  Lake  Harney.  Lieutenant  Searl  was  sent  with 
a  detachment  up  the  Saint  John's  River.  Colonel  Harney 
had  charge  of  the  barges,  loaded  with  forage,  which  as- 
cended the  Saint  John's  as  far  as  Fort  Taylor. 

With  the  beginning  of  the  year   1838  active  hostilities 


124 


LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV, 


commenced.  On  the  2nd  of  January  Brigadier  General 
Nelson  had  a  sharp  and  obstinate  engagement  with  a  party 
of  Seminoles  near  Wucusa  Swamp,  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Fort  Fanning,  and  Lieutenant  Powell,  of  the  navy,  met 
with  a  severe  defeat  on  the  15th  near  Jupiter  Inlet,  at  a 
place  called  Elausahatchie.  The  whites  succeeded  in  re- 
treating to  their  boats.  General  Jesup  moved  upon  the 
Indians  at  the  same  place  with  a  stronger  force  from  Fort 
Lloyd,  and  came  upon  them  on  the  24th  at  eleven  o'clock 
A.  M.     The  Indians,  under  Toskegee,  had  a  strong  position 


LAKE   HARNEV,   FLORIDA. 

and  General  Eustis,  in  the  immediate  command,  made  his 
dispositions  for  battle.  Colonel  Harney,  with  his  mounted 
dragoons,  was  placed  upon  the  right,  and  after  making  a 
reconnoissance,  he  found  he  was  in  a  position  to  do  no  ser- 
vice, while  the  plan  of  attack  adopted  was  vicious,  as  the 
Indian  position  could  not  be  forced  from  the  front.  Col- 
onel  Harney  crossed  the  river  and  penetrated  to  the  flank 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  125 

and  rear  of  the  Indians  at  the  critical  moment  that  the 
Americans  were  repulsed  and  driven  back  under  a  murder- 
ous fire. 

General  Jesup,  finding  them  in  full  retreat,  reproached 
them  for  falling  back.  They  replied  that  they  had  no 
leader.  He  then  led  them  forward  himself,  and  the  com- 
bined attack,  front  and  rear,  was  successful.  The  Indians, 
however,  fell  back  in  tolerable  order.  Colonel  Harney 
asked  permission  to  pursue  them,  which  was  granted,  but  a 
severe  rainstorm  coming  on  at  the  time,  pursuit  was  pre- 
vented. General  Jesup,  in  leading  the  charge,  was  severely 
wounded  in  the  temple,  and  probably  but  for  his  specta- 
cles would  have  been  killed.  In  this  action  there  were 
thirty  men  wounded  and  ten  killed. 

On  the  day  following,  some  Delaware  Indians  reported 
the  enemy  in  force  in  the  front,  and  General  Eustis,  the 
local  commander,  ordered  Colonel  Twiggs  to  send  Colonel 
Harney  with  two  companies  to  follow  them.  This  force 
Colonel  Harney  deemed  inadequate,  yet  he  cheerfully 
obeyed  the  order.  On  approaching  the  place  where  the 
Indians  were  reported  to  be,  he  dismounted  his  men,  and 
hitching  their  horses,  advanced,  only  to  ascertain,  however, 
that  the  Indians  had  fled  to  the  everglades,  and  had  aban- 
doned their  camp.  The  next  day,  January  26th,  the  whole 
force  moved  over  to  Jupiter  Inlet,  and  sent  to  Indian  River 
for  supplies. 

While  at  Jupiter  Inlet,  Colonel  Harney  urged  upon  the 
commanding  officer  the  propriety  of  sending  for  the 
Indians,  as  they  had  been  sufficiently  punished  to  desire 
peace.  His  consummate  knowledge  of  the  Indian  charac- 
ter, and  long  experience  in  their  warfare,  led  him  to  sup- 
pose they  would  treat  in  the  hour  of  their  defeat,  and  that 
it  would  be  politic  to  offer  them  terms.  The  suggestion  of 
Colonel  Harney  was  favorably  considered  by  General 
Eustis,  and  warmly  supported  by  Colonel  Twiggs.  Gen- 
eral Jesup  says  in  his  report  to  the  War  Department : 


126  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

In  the  evening  General  Eustis  called  on  me,  and  urged 
me  to  terminate  the  war  by  an  arrangement  with  the 
Indians,  by  which  they  should  be  left  in  the  southern  part 
of  Florida ;  he  believing,  as  I  did,  that  from  the  nature  of 
the  country  in  which  we  were  operating,  no  permanent 
advantage  could  be  obtained  except  by  peaceable  means. 
The  General  expressed  the  most  decided  opinion  that  the 
Department  would  approve  the  measure.  I  promised  to 
consider  it.  On  the  6th  the  column  moved  forward,  and 
in  the  afternoon  the  officers  in  advance  reported  three  or 
four  fresh  moccasin  tracks,  and  stated  that  the  trail  had 
taken  nearly  a  westerly  direction.  I  ordered  the  troops  to 
encamp,  and  sent  a  detachment  of  dragoons,  with  several 
Shawnee  Indians,  forward,  accompanied  by  my  aid-de- 
camp. Lieutenant  Linnard,  to  reconnoiter  the  country.  The 
detachment  returned  and  reported  fresh  signs  of  a  small 
party  of  Indians.  While  it  was  out,  Colonel  Twiggs,  with 
other  superior  officers  of  the  army,  called  on  me  and  urged, 
as  General  Eustis  had,  that  I  should  terminate  the  war  by 
allowing  the  Indians  to  retain  part  of  the  country;  they 
believing  that  no  decided  advantage  could  be  gained  over 
them  unless  they  could  be  withdrawn  from  the  swamps. 
Understanding  from  those  gentlemen  that  most,  if  not  all, 
the  officers  of  the  army  entertained  similar  views,  I,  on  full 
consideration,  decided  to  send  a  messenger  to  the  Indians, 
and  offer  them  peace  ;  but  I  determined  on  no  account  to 
grant  them  the  privilege  of  remaining  in  the  country  unless 
the  measure  should  be  sanctioned  by  the  General  Govern- 
ment. 

This  proposition,  carried  out  in  good  faith,  would  have 
left  the  everglades,  and  a  portion  of  the  peninsula  of 
Florida,  then  uninhabitable  for  the  whites,  in  the  possession 
of  the  Indians,  and  would  have  insured  peace.  But  the 
national  Government  refused  to  ratify  the  arrangements 
proposed.  Before  the  Government  had  acted  on  it,  how- 
ever, some  of  its  fruits  had  already  been  attained  in  the 
surrender  of  many  of  the  hostile  chiefs,  as  stated  in  Gen- 
eral Jesup's  despatches. 

In  the  meantime,  just  after  the  battle  of  Ebensa  Hatchie, 


OSCEOLA. 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  1 29 

and  while  the  American  army  was  encamped  at  Jupiter 
Bay,  the  famous  Mikasaukie  chief,  Osceola,  died  in  prison 
at  Fort  Moultrie,  in  Charleston  harbor,  whither  he  had  been 
taken  after  the  escape  of  one  of  the  chiefs  from  Saint 
Augustine.  We  copy  the  account  of  him  and  his  charac- 
ter given  by  an  impartial  and  able  writer,  Samuel  G.  Drake, 
F.  R.  S.: 

"  We  must  now  turn  our  attention,  for  the  last  time,  to  the 
once  feared,  and  much  dreaded,  and  now  no  less  regretted, 
chief,  Osceola.  We  left  him  in  prison  at  Saint  Augustine, 
in  November  last,  from  which  place  he  was,  soon  after  the 
escape  of  Coacoochee  from  thence,  sent  to  Charleston,  and 
confined  to  the  fort  in  that  harbor  for  safe  keeping,  until  he 
should  be,  with  others,  shipped  for  the  west.  But  that  time 
never  came  for  him  !  Death  came  with  that  aid  which  the 
white  man  refused  !  He  died  in  confinement  at  Fort  Moul- 
trie, of  a  catarrhal  fever,  on  the  30th  of  January,  1838. 
The  portrait  of  Osceola  is  difficult  to  be  drawn  ;  some  have 
made  him  a  coward,  and  others  a  knave ;  some  have  aver- 
red that  he  was  but  a  sub-chief,  and  without  respect  among 
his  own  people ;  others  have  indignantly  added  that  he  was 
the  son  of  a  white  man,  as  though  their  own  blood  had 
degraded  him  in  the  scale  of  being.  It  might  be  so.  How 
then  ought  they  to  look  upon  themselves  ?  Doubly  de- 
graded in  that  scale.  Others  portray  his  character  in  un- 
measured terms  of  lulmiration  ;  making  him  the  greatest 
of  chiefs,  ablest  of  counsellors,  and  bravest  of  warriors. 
We  affirm  to  neither.  The  circumstance  of  his  being  better 
known  when  the  v/ar  began  than  other  chiefs,  gave  him  a 
celebrity  or  notoriety  which  his  deeds  did  not  claim.  He 
had  lived  more  among  the  white  people,  and  hence  was 
better  known  to  them ;  and  when  a  depredation  was  com- 
mitted, or  a  battle  fought,  Osceola  was  the  supposed  leader 
of  the  Indians ;  and  as  the  report  of  such  occurrences 
spread,  the  supposition  vanished,  and  thus  arose  much  of 
the  celebrity  of  Osceolo.  Hence  it  is  easy  to  see  how  he 
came  so  prominently  into  the  van  of  notoriety.  Thus, 
in  our  account  of  the  defeat  of  Major  Dade,  the  authorities 
then  relied  upon  made  us  say  he  was  the  leader  in  that 


130  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

wretched  disaster ;  but  we  are  now  assured  that  he  was  at 
Camp  King  that  same  da}',  and  was  the  chief  actor  in  that 
tragedy,  and  hence  could  not  have  been  in  the  fight  with 
Major  Dade.  He  Hved  near  Camp  King  when  the  war 
began,  after  which  he  removed  to  Long  Swamp,  12  miles 
to  the  south-west  of  it. 

"  But  we  detract  nothing  from  the  just  fame  of  Osceola. 
He  was  a  great  man,  and  his  name  will  go  down  to  the 
latest  posterity,  with  as  much  renown  as  that  of  Philip  of 
Pokanoket.  Both,  by  fatal  errors,  were  brought  prema- 
turely into  the  hands  of  their  enemies  ;  Philip,  by  the  rash 
murder  of  one  of  his  own  men,  and  Osceola  by  a  mistaken 
estimate  of  the  character  of  his  foes." 

The  voluntary  surrender  of  near  two  thousand  Indians, 
under  the  arrangement  made  by  General  Jesup,  and  the 
subsequent  refusal  by  the  Government  to  ratify  his  arrange- 
ment, looks  like  perfidy  unworthy  a  great  and  civilized 
nation  towards  a  race  of  savages.  It  resulted  in  the  loss  of 
the  confidence  of  all  Indians  in  the  whites,  with,  as  a  con- 
sequence, a  renewal  of  Indian  hostilities,  which  means  mur- 
ders and  the  most  horrid  cruelties.  The  news  of  the  refusal 
of  the  Washington  Government  was  transmitted  and  re- 
ceived by  General  Jesup  on  the  19th  day  of  I\Iarch,  1838. 
The  Indians,  by  some  means,  received  the  information  at 
the  same  time.  Renewed  depredations  began  in  Middle 
Florida,  and  caused  great  consternation  among  the  settlers 
and  white  inhabitants.  General  Jesup  had  ordered  General 
Eustis  forward,  but  was  forced  to  recall  him,  on  account  of 
depredations  in  Central  Florida,  and  send  Colonel  Bank- 
head,  with  strong  detachments  of  the  First  and  Fourth 
Artillery,  after  Sam  Jones,  and  soon  after  he  ordered  Col- 
onel Harney  to  relieve  Colonel  Bankhead 

Colonel  Harney,  with  his  dismounted  dragoons,  pursued 
the  Indians  into  their  hunting  grounds,  making  rapid  forced 
marches  at  night,  and  succeeded  in  surprising  the  hostile 
chief,  Sam  Jones,  a  man  of  unusual  force  of  character  and 
influence   among  his  people,  and  his  band.     He  attacked 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  I3I 

them  and  put  them  to  rout,  but  the  Indians  fled  and  took 
refuge  in  the  mangrove  swamps  where  troops  could  not 
follow. 

While  the  pursuit  was  being  pressed,  one  of  Colonel 
Harney's  men,  a  fine  soldier,  shot  by  mistake  an  Indian 
squaw.  She  was  severely  wounded  and  the  man  was  great- 
ly distressed,  as  they  did  not  make  war  on  women  and 
children.  They  treated  her  with  all  the  kindness  they  could 
extend  under  the  circumstances.  The  first  thing  she  asked 
for  was  a  fire,  which  was  made  for  her,  and  they  placed  a 
shade  over  her  to  protect  her  from  the  rays  of  the  sun. 
They  were  at  a  loss  what  to  do  with  her  until  Colonel  Har- 
ney suggested  that  if  they  would  leave  her  the  Indians 
would  come  after  her  in  the  night.  It  was  proposed  to 
capture  the  Indians  in  their  effort  to  rescue  her  during  the 
night,  which  Colonel  Harney  said  would  certainly  be  made. 
It  was  supposed  they  would  wish  to  come  to  the  aid  of 
this  squaw,  but  Colonel  Harney  declared  they  should  not 
be  molested  and  that  if  they  came  on  the  mission  of  human- 
ity and  duty,  as  supposed,  they  should  be  free  from  arrest 
by  him,  and  should  have  safe  conduct.  That  night  Sam 
Jones  and  her  husband  came  and  visited  her,  and  on  the 
second  night  the  Indian  woman  was  taken  away,  and,  to 
the  great  relief  of  the  soldier,  she  got  well.  Several  months 
afterwards  she  and  her  tribe  were  met  by  General  Harney 
and  his  command  on  peaceable  terms.  The  soldiers  inter- 
mingled with  the  Indians,  and  one  of  them  recognizing  the 
poor,  wounded  squaw,  now  restored  to  full  health,  called 
out  to  the  unlucky  fellow  who  had  shot  her,  '•  Hall,  here  is 
your  woman  come  to  life  !  "  Upon  hearing  the  call,  Hall 
ran  to  the  Indian  woman  and  there  was  a  mutual  recog- 
nition, and  the  grateful  squaw  embraced  the  poor  fellow, 
overwhelmed  with  tears  and  joy. 

In  April,  1838,  Major-General  Jesup  was  relieved  of  the 
command  in  Florida  and  ordered  to  the  Cherokee  country. 
Meanwhile  he  had  emigrated  more  Indians  to  the  Cherokee 


132  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV 

country  than  all  the  other  officers  who  had  preceded  him. 
He  was  succeeded  by  General  Zachary  Taylor.  The  Indian 
depredations* were  frequent,  and,  notwithstanding  the  num- 
bers captured  and  sent  away  during  the  two  years  General 
Jesup  was  in  command,  there  remained  a  formidable  force 
in  the  swamps  and  everglades. 

General  Macomb,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  United 
States  army,  had  repaired  in  person  to  the  seat  of  war. 
He  arrived  in  Florida,  and  established  headquarters  at 
Black  Creek,  on  the  5th  day  of  April,  1838.  On  reaching 
these  headquarters  he  immediately  sent  for  Colonel  Har- 
ney, who  was  at  Cape  Florida.  The  War  Department  at 
Washington  had  discovered  the  hasty  error  committed  by 
Secretary  Poinsett,  whose  dispatches  to  General  Jesup  do 
not  indicate  a  high  order  of  statesmanship,  nor  do  they  do 
any  credit  to  his  humanity.  General  Macomb  had  instruc- 
tion, and  power,  which  if  they  had  been  accorded  to  Gen- 
eral Jesup,  would  have  spared  much  bloodshed  and  been 
more  creditable  to  the  honor  of  the  United  States.  He  was 
instructed  to  pacify  the  Indians  until  another  season  for 
campaigning,  for  the  warm  and  sickly  season  was  already 
at  hand.  He  found  it  difficult,  for  the  Indians  were  already 
spread  over  the  country  in  sm-all  bands  and  were  commit- 
ting all  sorts  of  depredations  and  murders.  The  plans 
suggested  by  Colonel  Harney  at  Fort  King,  and  formally 
adopted  by  General  Jesup,  were  laid  before  the  command- 
er-in-chief. Colonel  Harney  took  the  maps  and  marked 
off  a  reservation  for  the  hostile  Indians.  He  stated  that 
a  settlement  could  be  made  with  the  Indians,  if  he  could 
be  assured  the  Government  would  keep  faith  with  them  ; 
that  the  Indians  had  been  deceived,  and  were  suspicious 
of  the  promises  of  the  Department  at  Washington.  He 
stated  that  he  could  not  undertake  to  deceive  them  him- 
self, and  unless  he  was  assured  the  treaty,  after  being  made, 
would  be  observed  by  our  own  people,  he  could  do  noth- 
ing. 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  I  33 

General  Macomb  showed  Colonel  Harney  his  instruc- 
tions and  gave  the  assurances,  upon  which,  on  the  17th  day 
of  May,  a  number  of  chiefs  were  got  together,  principalh- 
by  the  influence  of  Colonel  Harney  and  the  respect  in 
which  he  was  held  by  the  Seminoles,  and  an  amicable  ar- 
rangement was  made  by  which  they  were  to  remain  in  the 
country. 

But  the  Indian  depredations  continued.  Tiger  Tail, 
chief  of  the  Tallahassees,  and  other  chiefs,  repudiated  the 
treaty,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  Sam  Jones  had  ever 
assented  to  it.  The  portion  of  Southern  Florida  intended 
for  the  Indians  began  at  the  mouth  of  Pease  Creek,  up  to  a 
branch  that  ran  east  towards  Lake  Okechobee,  and  on  a 
line  dividing  the  lake  through  the  center  and  through  the 
center  of  the  everglades  to  the  head  of  the  Shark  River, 
and  from  thence  to  the  Gulf  General  Macomb  had  even 
proposed  to  give  the  Indians  the  whole  of  the  peninsula. 
But  Colonel  Harney  assured  him  it  was  not  necessary,  that 
the  territory  indicated  would  be  satisfactory.  General 
Macomb  sent  for  the  chiefs  to  come  and  meet  him  at  Fort 
King.  The  Indians  were  afraid  to  trust  the  whites  until 
Colonel  Harney  gave  them  his  word,  and  promised  them 
he  would,  if  the  treaty  was  not  obser\'ed,  give  them  his 
ammunition  and  guns  and  three  days  the  start  and  they 
could  resume  hostilities  if  they  chose.  They  relied  on 
Colonel  Harney's  word,  and  a  treaty  was  made  at  Fort 
King,  upon  the  terms  proposed  by  Colonel  Harney. 

The  people  of  Florida  were  greatly  dissatisfied  with  this 
treaty ;  they  were  opposed  to  the  Indians  remaining  in  the 
country,  and  were  much  exasperated.  Although  the  treaty 
had  been  formally  ratified  at  Washington,  the  politicians 
of  Florida  were  determined  to  defeat  its  enforcement.  A 
prominent  citizen  of  Tallahassee  wrote  to  Mr.  Poinsett, 
Secretary  of  War,  inquiring  if  it  was  ratified  as  a  permanent 
arrangement.  The  Secretary  replied,  assuring  him  that  it 
was  only  temporary — an  act  of  folly  and  indecent  bad  faith 


134  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY, 

in  the  Secretary-,  which  not  only  led  to  bloodshed  and  dis- 
aster, but  dishonored  his  Government,  and  impaired  the 
efficiency  of  the  military  service  at  the  head  of  which  he 
had  been  placed.  This  letter  of  Mr.  Poinsett,  sent  to  Gen- 
eral Taylor,  was  immediately  made  public,  and  reached  the 
Indians  almost  as  soon  as  it  did  the  army.  It  impaired 
and  destroyed  for  the  time  the  well-established  reputation 
of  Colonel  Harney  among  the  Seminole  warriors,  and  im- 
periled his  life  as  well  as  his  character.  It  exposed  not 
only  the  army  to  perils,  but  the  peaceful  inhabitants  to 
massacre  and  the  horrors  of  savage  war. 

Immediately  upon  the  treaty  being  made,  Colonel  Har- 
ney urged  upon  General  Macomb  the  establishment  of  a 
trading  house  for  the  Indians  in  the  bounds  of  their  terri- 
tor}-.  General  Macomb  directed  him  to  select  a  suitable 
site,  and  also  authorized  him  to  call  on  General  Taj-lor  for 
two  companies  to  protect  the  trading  house  among  the 
Indians.  Colonel  Harney  asked  for  a  written  order,  but 
General  ^Macomb  said  it  was  of  no  use  to  reduce  it  to 
writing.  A  steamboat  was  placed  at  Harney's  disposal, 
and  he  proceeded  to  select  a  site  on  the  Coloosahatchie 
River,  fifteen  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  river.  He  had 
with  him  thirty  dismounted  dragoons,  which  Jie  left  at  the 
new  site  for  this  house,  in  command  of  Sergeant  Biglow, 
and  went  on  to  Tampa  Bay,  where  General  Taylor  had  his 
headquarters.  General  Taylor  refused  to  let  him  have  any 
troops,  and  even  denied  him  a  commissioned  o.ificer.  He 
appointed  a  man  named  Dalham  sutler  to  the  new  trading 
post,  and  sent  orders  to  the  sergeant  comnanding  his  dra- 
goons to  assist  in  building  a  trading  house. 

Colonel  Harney  left  Tampa  Bay  for  his  own  post  at 
Cape  Florida,  and  on  his  way  he  called  at  Caloosahatchie 
and  found  every  thing  in  the  most  prosperous  shape.  The 
Indians  were  contented  and  trading  was  going  on.  Two 
hours  after  he  left  Tampa  Bay  the  mail  arrived  with  the 
news  of  the  letter  of  Mr.  Poinsett,  in  which  he  declared  the 


BILLY  BOWLEGS. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLIHOIS 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  1 37 

treaty  was  only  temporary  and  not  intended  to  be  perma- 
nent. The  Indians  received  the  news  almost  as  soon  as  it 
reached  Tampa  Bay,  and  swift  runners  had  communicated 
it  through  the  country.  It  reached  Coloosahatchie  while 
Col.  Harney  was  there,  but  he  knowing  nothing  of  it,  Billy 
Bowlegs,  a  chief  who  afterward  obtained  much  celebrity, 
and  in  after  years  took  the  remnant  of  his  race  to  the  Ar- 
kansas reservation,  came  aboard  the  boat,  and  told  Harney 
that  the  chiefs  wanted  to  see  him  before  he  left.  He  asked 
Billy  Bowlegs  what  they  wanted,  being  unsuspicious  of  what 
had  occurred  at  Washington.  He  concluded  to  stop  off, 
had  his  tent  pitched  on  shore,  and  spent  the  night.  The 
next  morning,  July  22,  1 839,  he  took  the  boat  down  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Coloosahatchie  River  and  went  hunting.  He 
returned  in  the  evening  about  nine  o'clock  to  the  trading 
house.  He  was  very  much  exhausted,  and  took  off  his 
'joat  and  boots.  His  intention  was  to  rest  a  while  and  then 
j.-t  up  to  see  how  the  sergeant  in  command  had  posted 
the  sentinels.  Unfortunately,  he  fell  asleep — such  a  sleep 
as  is  superinduced  by  fatigue.  About  daylight  he  was 
aroused  by  the  firing  of  guns  and  the  yelling  of  Indians. 
He  ran  to  the  front  of  his  tent  and  heard  voices  exclaiming, 
"Run  to  the  water."  He  found  some  of  his  men  had  taken 
to  the  water  to  try  to  protect  themselves  and  were  standing 
there  in  the  river  up  to  their  necks.  The  Colonel  started 
back  to  get  his  boots  and  coat  and  hat,  but  changed  his 
mind  and  started  to  the  water  to  die  with  his  men.  He  got 
to  the  edge  of  the  water  and  stopped  to  look.  He  saw  that 
none  of  his  men  had  arms,  and  concluded  he  could  be  of 
no  use  to  them.  He  decided  at  once  to  save  himself,  and 
ran  down  the  river  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  bringing  all 
of  the  resources  of  his  mind  rapidly  to  plan  an  escape. 
He  walked  into  the  river  and  down  a  few  paces.  He  then 
walked  out  backwards  and  up  the  bank,  so  as  to  deceive 
the  Indians  by  the  tracks  into  the  belief  that  two  men  had 
gone  into  the  river  and  been  drowned.      In  the  meantime  a 


138  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

part  of  the  dragoons  had  escaped  into  a  trading  boat  which 
was  lying  at  the  post.  The  men  in  the  river  had  been 
decoyed  out  by  the  Indians,  under  promise  of  being  un- 
harmed, and  were  all  massacred.  Billy  Bowlegs  was  par- 
ticularly friendly  with  Sergeant  Biglow,  in  command, 
and  upon  Billy's  assurance  he  surrendered,  only  to  be  mur- 
dered. 

As  Harney  disappeared  in  the  underbrush  of  the  shore, 
he  heard  the  baffled  yell  of  the  Indians  as  they  entered  his 
tent.  They  had  stopped  to  plunder  in  the  quarters  of  the 
men  and  delayed  sufficiently  for  him  to  get  a  start.  On 
reaching  the  point  where  he  entered  the  water,  they  con- 
cluded that  he  and  a  companion  had  drowned  themselves 
rather  than  be  killed  by  them.  A  negro  who  was  with 
them  and  who  was  friendly,  but  who  was  yet  more  attached 
to  Harney  than  to  them,  also  did  what  he  could  to  mislead 
them  and  so  give  him  valuable  time.  With  all  the  Indians' 
confidence  in  his  power,  and  respect  for  his  soldierly  quali- 
ties, there  was  mingled,  too,  a  superstitious  fear  that  made 
them  wary  and  increased  his  chances  for  escape.  One  of 
his  men,  who  had  noticed  his  stratagem  while  hidden  in  the 
palmetto  thicket  on  the  shore,  soon  joined  him  in  his  pain- 
ful and  perilous  march.  His  objective  point  was  a  lumber 
pile,  fifteen  miles  away  from  camp,  much  of  the  distance 
over  mangrove  roots  that  made  the  walk  distressing.  In  the 
operations  of  the  four  preceding  days  the  lumber  pile  had 
borne  some  part.  To  reach  this  point  (that  might  already 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians),  required,  on  his  part,  all 
the  address  and  endurance  that  were  possessed  by  his  sav- 
age foe.  He  had  to  make  experimental  trips  to  the  water, 
to  learn  his  location;  and,  if  he  met  any  Indians,  his  safety 
depended  on  seeing  them  first.  He  had  not  proceeded  far 
till  he  thought  he  discovered  an  Indian,  and,  being  un- 
armed, he  drew  his  pocket  knife  and  prepared  to  make  the 
best  defense  he  could.  He  did  not  forget,  however,  to 
make  the  sign  of  the  cross  and  say  his  prayers,  as  is  the 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR. 


139 


usual  habit  of  soldiers  when  in  imminent  peril.  The  sup- 
posed Indian  turned  out  to  be  one  of  his  own  dragoons 
named  Britton.  Thus  reinforced  with  Britton,  they  pro- 
ceeded cautiously.  They  aimed  to  reach  the  lumber  pile. 
The  walking  was  very  bad  over  mangrove  roots  and  sour 
grass,  which  cut  and  lacerated  his  unprotected  feet.  Brit- 
ton gave  the  Colonel  his  shoes  to  wear.  They  cautiously 
reconnoitered  as  they  proceeded.  Having  no  hat,  and  the 
sun  coming  down  vertically  on  them,  Colonel  Harney  cut 
grass  and  turf,  with  which  he  protected  himself  from  its 
rays.  He  also  blacked  himself  with  the  charred  wood  left 
by  fires  in  the  forest,  so  as  to  look  as  much  as  possible  like 
an  Indian.  Their  route  two  or  three  times  brought  them 
to  the  shore  of  the  river.  The  third  time  Britton,  who  was 
reconnoitering,  heard  a  voice  on  the  river.  They  prepared 
themselves  to  make  the  best  fight  they  could.  Harney 
cautioned  Britton  that  their  safety  depended  on  their  seeing 
the  Indians  first.  He  sent  Britton  down  the  shore,  while 
he  went  above  to  look  for  the  enemy.  In  a  few  moments 
after  they  separated  Britton  reported  the  Indians  were 
coming.     He  had  seen  a  canoe  with  some  one  in  it. 

"Britton,  can  you  fight?"  said  Harney.  "  I  will  die  with 
the  Colonel,"  replied  Britton.  Colonel  Harney  said  there 
were  two  Indians,  and  cautioned  Britton  not  to  let  an  In- 
dian get  behind  him,  and  he  could  kill  one  of  them  at 
once,  and  then  be  ready  for  the  other.  After  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  fight  were  made,  Harney  asked  Britton 
where  the  Indians  were.  He  replied  that  "  they  were  under 
that  wild  fig  tree,"  pointing  at  the  same  time  to  it.  Har- 
ney started  to  the  fig  tree  and  told  Britton  to  keep  a  sharp 
lookout.  On  arriving  at  the  tree  he  planted  one  foct 
firmly  on  the  ground  and  the  other  on  the  shell-bank,  for 
the  purpose  of  making  a  leap  and  an  attack  on  the  Indians. 
On  rising  up  he  saw  the  canoe  that  Britton  had  seen,  but 
no  Indians  were  there.  It  was  his  own  canoe.  In  it,  if  not 
disturbed,  he  knew  there  was  a  harpoon,  which  he  used  in 


140  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

his  fishing  expeditions.  He  found  it  safe,  and  expressed 
his  gratification  by  a  loud  yell,  which  reverberated  through 
the  forests  of  Florida.  He  was  again  a  Christian  warrior^ 
with  a  canoe  beneath  his  feet,  and  a  trusty  though  some- 
what peculiar  weapon  in  his  hand,  and  he  could  yet  exer- 
cise the  prerogatives  of  commander — the  succor  of  fugi- 
tives and  attention  to  his  dead.  Instructing  Britton  in  pad- 
dling the  canoe,  the  two  paddled  on  until  they  overtook  a 
boat  load  of  their  own  men,  and  then  Colonel  Harney 
announced  his  intention  of  going  back  to  see  what  had 
become  of  his  force,  that  very  night,  even  if  he  had  to  go 
alone.  The  men,  though  badly  demoralized,  volunteered 
to  go  with  him,  though  he  would  not  order  them  to  do  so. 
The  night  was  a  bright  moonlight  one ;  the  worst  possible 
for  his  purpose.  His  whole  force  consisted  of  seven  men., 
with  insufficient  arms;  yet  he  made  the  reconnoissance 
w^ith  five  men  and  two  guns,  and  collected  and  counted  the 
dead  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  tidings  of  the  living.  He 
looked  in  the  faces  of  the  men  and  found  them  all  but  five. 
Goaded  by  the  ghastly  sight  around  him,  and  a  soldierly 
desire  to  avenge  his  comrades  at  once,  he  was  anxious  to 
make  an  attack  upon  the  Indians  that  night  in  their  camp. 
Colonel  Harney  relied  upon  a  surprise,  and  the  fact  that 
two  barrels  of  whisky,  that  they  had  found  in  the  sutler's 
stores,  had  probably  placed  most  of  them  in  a  position  that 
would  keep  them  out  of  a  fight.  There  were  but  five  men 
in  the  party,  as  two  of  the  seven  had  been  left  in  the  rear 
with  the  other  boat,  and  these  five  men  were  too  much 
unnerved  to  be  willing  to  take  the  hazard.  It  is  possible 
that  the  measure  of  the  courage  of  these  men  was  in  truth 
the  measure  of  safety.  Colonel  Harney's  solicitude  for.  his 
men  who  were  yet  living  led  him  to  shout  and  invite  them 
to  him.  Two  of  them,  he  afterwards  learned,  heard  him 
but  were  fearful  that  it  was  an  Indian  ruse  to  draw  them 
from  their  hiding  places.  The  sad  party  then  left ;  one 
party  was   sent  back  to  Tampa  Bay  with  the  painful  intel- 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  I4I 

ligence,  and  the  Colonel  went  to  Cape  Florida,  his  head- 
quarters. 

Three  Englishmen,  who  belonged  to  the  United  States 
forces,  were  in  a  manner  responsible  for  the  trouble,  in  that 
they  fomented  the  suspicions  of  the  Indians  and  precipi- 
tated the  outbreak.  They  afterwards  paid  the  penalty 
which  an  act  of  treachery  always  brings  down  upon  its 
perpetrators.  The  Indians  were  always  distrustful  of  them, 
and  at  last  killed  them  as  an  act  of  self-defense. 

Colonel  Harney  was  yet  painfully  ignorant  of  the  cause 
of  the  out-break,  where  all  had  seemed  so  happy  and  satis- 
factor}',  when  the  mail  packet  arrived  at  Cape  Florida  with 
letters  and  papers,  and  the  famous  letter  of  Poinsett,  Secre- 
tary of  War,  for  whose  lack  of  moral  courage  and  double- 
dealing,  brave  men  in  the  front  had  been  sacrificed. 

Colonel  Harney  went  to  Washington  determined  to  sift 
the  matter  to  the  bottom.  He  saw  General  Macomb,  who 
asserted  that  he  acted  under  a  carte  blanche  from  Poinsett, 
and  yet  he  was  unwilling  to  prefer  charges  that  would  lead 
to  a  thorough  investigation. 

The  news  of  the  attack  upon  Colooshatchie  and  the 
massacre,  spread  rapidly  over  Florida,  both  among  the 
Indians  and  whites,  and  produced  a  profound  sensation.  It 
led  to  immediate  hostilities  of  the  most  bloody  character. 
The  distrust  engendered  by  the  violation  of  the  treaty  by 
Mr.  Poinsett,  before  it  was  violated  by  the  Indians,  made  it 
almost  impossible  to  expect  a  reconciliation.  What  com- 
fort the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  Florida  politicians,  may 
have  found  to  reconcile  their  consciences  after  their  med- 
dlesome folly  had  produced  such  bloody  and  terrible 
results,  we  cannot  tell,  but  of  one  thing  the  country  was 
assured,  and  that  was  that  the  bad  faith  of  the  Government, 
through  its  culpable  minister,  again  produced  a  state  of  war 
much  worse  than  had  existed  before,  and  led  to  a  new  ex- 
pedient, no  less  than  the  adoption  of  the  use  of  blood- 
hounds   in   hurrting  the    wild   Indians   in    their    fastnesses, 


142  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

which  was  adopted,  and  without  success,  in  October  follow- 
ing, an  expedient  which  covered  the  administration  of  ]\Ir. 
Van  Buren  with  ridicule,  and,  with  other  follies  of  his  ad- 
ministration, defeated  him  for  re-election  to  the  Presidency, 
It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  however,  that  the  hounds  were 
more  human  than  the  Secretary  of  War.  They  would  not 
bite  and  ferociously  destroy  a  human,  but  when  overtaken 
would  run  against  the  fugitive  and  push  him  down  and  if 
he  would  lie  still  he  would  not  be  hurt. 

The  cotemporary  newspapers  were  loud  in  their  denuncia- 
tion of  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  although  the  respon- 
sibility lay  entirely  with  the  faithless  or  incompetent  Secre- 
tary at  Washington,  he  was  still  retained  in  the  cabinet, 
without  inquiry  or  investigation  of  his  conduct. 
We  quote  from  INIr.  Drake's  book  again : 

At  length,  on  the  17th  of  INIay,  the  General  got  a  num- 
ber of  chiefs  together,  from  the  southern  part  of  the  pen- 
insula, by  the  negotiation  of  Colonel  Harney,  and  an  ami- 
cable arrangement  was  made,  by  which  they  were  to  remain 
in  the  country  for  the  present,  or  until  they  could  be  as- 
sured of  the  prosperous  condition  of  their  friends  who  had 
emigrated.     The  General  then  left  Florida. 

On  the  23d,  Colonel  Harney  was  attacked  on  the  Coloo- 
shatchie  or  Synebal  River,  and  had  13  out  of  18  of  his  men 
killed.  The  Colonel  had  gone  to  this  place  to  establish  a 
trading  house,  agreeably  to  the  treaty  made  at  Fort  King 
between  some  of  the  Seminoles  and  General  Macomb, 
before  spoken  of  Thus  that  treaty  (which  was  only  ver- 
bal) was  either  made  on  the  part  of  the  Indians  to  deceive 
the  General,  or  some  Indians  made  it  without  any  authority 
from  their  nation ;  the  latter  was  doubtless  the  fact. 

When  the  news  of  Colonel  Harney's  surprise  reached 
Fort  Mellon,  on  the  31st,  some  50  Indians,  who  had  come 
into  that  neighborhood,  were  alarmed  for  their  safety,  and 
fled  ;  but  soon  after,  about  45  of  them  came  in  to  talk  with 
Lieutenant  Hanson,  and  were  surrounded  and  taken;  two 
men,  in  attempting  to  escape,  were  shot  down  and  killed. 
About  this  time,  as  a  company  of  soldiers  were  building  a 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  I43 

bridge  in  Middle  Florida,  about  two  miles  from  a  post  on 
the  Suwanee,  they  were  surprised  by  the  Indians,  and  six  of 
their  number  killed. 

Early  in  October,  it  was  announced  that  7,000  regular 
troops  were  to  be  sent  to  Florida,  and  that  General  Taj-lor 
had  been  authorized  to  send  to  Cuba  for  a  large  number  of 
bloodhounds,  to  enable  them  to  scent  out  the  Indians. 
When  it  was  known  throughout  the  country  that  dogs  were 
to  be  employed  against  them,  there  was  a  general  burst  of 
indignation  ;  but  though  it  is  a  fact  that  the  dogs  were  pro- 
cured and  brought  to  Florida,  with  Spaniards  to  direct 
them,  yet  we  believe  they  entirely  failed  in  the  experiment; 
there  being  but  here  and  there  a  solitary  instance  of  their 
performing  the  service  for  which  they  were  intended.  If 
the  originators  of  this  dog-scheme  had  in  view  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Indians  in  the  manner  they  were  destroyed  by 
the  followers  of  Columbus,  they  deserve  not  the  rights  of 
humanity,  but  should  rather  be  hunted  out  of  society  by 
beasts  as  savage  as  themselves,  if  such  could  be  found. 
How  much  was  affected  by  the  hounds,  it  is  difficult  to  tell, 
for  long  before  their  arrival  in  the  country,  the  editors  of 
papers  in  that  region  had  probably  concluded  upon  what 
course  they  would  pursue,  when  official  accounts  from  dogs 
should  be  offered  for  publication  ;  but  occasionally  a  reck- 
less fellow  dropped  a  paragraph  like  the  following:  "The 
Cuba  dogs  have  proved  quite  beneficial.  They  caught  five 
Indians  the  other  day,  in  Middle  Florida,  handsomely."  In 
March,  (1840,)  "  Colonel  Twiggs  made  a  fifteen  days'  scout 
up  the  St.  John's  River  with  the  bloodhounds.  On  his 
return,  it  was  stated  that  they  zvere  fotind  to  be  perfectly  use- 
less ;  all  attempts  to  induce  them  to  take  the  trail  of  the 
Indians  proving  unsuccessful.  These  and  other  trials  are 
evidences  sufficient  to  put  an  end  to  all  further  anxiet}'  on 
the  part  of  the  Northern  sentimentalists."  From  such  state- 
ments we  are  left  to  make  up  such  accounts  as  we  may,  of 
what  was  affected  by  the  bloodhounds. 

In  November,  1839,  Colonel  Harney  was  granted  a  sick 
leave  of  absence,  which  he  availed  himself  of  to  go  to  Cuba 
and  recruit  his  health.  He  returned  to  his  command  May 
23,  1840.     The    s°ason    was    too    far    advanced   for  active 


144  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

operations  in  the  field.  The  Indians  continued  to  be  hos- 
tile and  commit  depredations.  The  campaign  of  1839  had 
few  results.  The  dogs  were  a  failure,  and  the  war  was  a 
series  of  petty  scenes  of  bloodshed  perpetrated  on  both 
sides.  In  December,  1840,  Colonel  Harney  was  ordered  to 
attack  the  Spanish  Indians,  of  whom  Chaikika  was  chief,  in 
the  everglades.      We  quote  from  Mr.  Drake's  book  again  : 

Early  in  December,  Colonel  Harney,  as  much  now  the 
terror  of  the  Seminoles  as  Colonel  Church  was  to  the  Wam- 
panoags,  or  Daniel  Boone  to  the  Kikapoos,  undertook  an 
expedition  into  the  everglades.  These  much  heard  of  and 
little  known  retreats  extend  over  perhaps  100  square  miles. 
They  are  an  expanse  of  shoal  water,  varying  in  depth  from 
one  to  five  feet,  dotted  with  innumerable  low  and  flat 
islands,  generally  covered  with  trees  or  shrubs.  Much  of 
the  water  is  shaded  by  an  almost  impenetrable  saw-grass, 
as  high  as  a  man's  head,  but  the  little  channels  in  every 
direction  are  free  from  it.  It  had  been  long  supposed,  that 
upon  the  islands  in  some  part  of  this  district  the  Indians 
had  their  head-quarters,  from  whence  they  issued  upon 
their  destructive  expeditions.  This  suspicion  amounted  to 
a  certainty  a  little  before  this,  from  the  testimony  of  a 
negro  named  John,  who  had  escaped  from  a  clan  in  that 
region  and  come  in  at  Cape  Florida.  He  had  been  with 
the  Indians  since  1835,  at  which  time  he  was  captured  by 
them  from  Dr.  Grew.  Therefore  it  was  determined  by 
Colonel  Harney  to  take  John  as  a  guide,  and  endeavor  to 
strike  an  effectual  blow  upon  them  in  their  own  fastness. 
Accordingly,  with  90  men  in  boats,  he  set  out  to  traverse 
that  monotonous  world,  the  everglades.  John  faithfully 
performed  his  promise,  and  led  the  armament  directly  to 
the  island  where  the  Indians  were,  which  was  at  once  sur- 
rounded, and  38  prisoners  taken  and  2  killed.  It  proved  to 
be  the  band  of  Chai-ki-ka,  as  "noted  a  rogue"  as  Tatoson 
of  old.  lie  it  was,  it  is  said,  who  led  the  party  that  de- 
stroyed Indian  Key,  and  traitorously  massacred  Colonel 
Harney's  men  at  the  Synebal.  As  direct  evidence  of  the 
fact,  upwards  of  2,000  dollars'  worth  of  goods  taken  from 
Dr.  Perrin's  settlement  were  identified,  and  13  Colt's  rifles 
lost  at  the  Synebal  were  found ;  therefore,  as  an  offset  to 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  I45 

those  affairs,  nine  of  the  "  warriors  "  were  forthwith  execut- 
ed by  hanging,  and  the  tenth  was  preserved  for  a  future 
guide. 

When  Colonel  Harney  came  upon  Chaikika's  band,  the 
chief  was  at  a  short  distance  from  his  people,  chopping 
wood,  and  on  discovering  that  the  foe  was  upon  them,  fled 
with  all  his  might  for  the  high  grass.  Several  soldiers 
started  in  pursuit,  but  he  outran  them  all  except  a  private 
named  Hall,  [the  same  man  that  shot  the  Indian  woman  be- 
longing to  Sam  Jones'  band].  When  he  found  he  could  not 
escape  from  him,  and  being  unarmed,  he  faced  about,  and 
with  a  smile  of  submission  on  his  face,  threw  up  his  arms, 
in  token  of  surrender.  This  availed  him  nothing.  Hall 
leveled  his  rifle,  which  sent  a  bullet  through  his  skull  into 
his  brains,  and  he  fell  lifeless  into  the  water  but  a  little 
distance  from  the  shore  of  the  island  !  How  like  the  fall 
of  the  great  Wampanoag  chief!  Colonel  Harney  had  one 
man  killed  and  five  wounded,  of  whom  negro  John,  the 
pilot,  was  one. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  at  the  success  of  Colonel  Har- 
ney all  over  Florida  ;  and  although  his  summary  vengeance 
upon  some  of  the  prisoners  called  forth  imprecations  from 
many,  those  were  drowned  by  the  general  burst  of  appro- 
bation; but  this  was  damped  in  some  degree  by  the  loss 
of  a  very  valuable  and  meritorious  officer,  who  died  imme- 
diately after  the  expedition  returned  from  the  everglades. 
This  was  Captain  W.  E.  Davidson,  who  died  at  Indian  Key 
on  the  24th  of  the  same  month,  from  disease  engendered 
while  upon  that  service. 

On  taking  leave  of  Colonel  Twiggs,  as  he  departed  for  his 
expedition  against  Chaikika,  Harney  promised  he  would 
return  with  the  scalp  of  that  piratical  savage.  The  steamer 
which  carried  the  expedition  to  Cape  Florida  broke  a  shaft 
near  the  mouth  of  New  Smyrna  river,  and  while  the  Col- 
onel was  waiting  for  another  vessel  he  procured  from  the 
skipper  of  a  fishing  smack  a  coil  of  new  rope. 

The  expedition  had  set  out  from  Cape  Florida,  and  had 
canoes  for  no  more  than  eighty-eight  men ;  of  these  fifty 
were  dragoons  and  thirty-eight  artillery.     The  attack  was 


146  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

made  after  a  perilous  and  laborious  march  through  mud 
and  swamps  and  rain.  The  Indians  were  surprised  in  their 
last  fastness,  and  the  result  was  the  summary  execution  of 
some  of  Chaikika's  warriors  with  the  rope  purchased  from 
the  skipper  of  the  fishing  smack.  This  result  broke  the 
back-bone  of  the  Seminole  resistance,  and  the  hostile  chiefs 
soon  sued  for  peace  upon  the  terms  they  had  so  often  re- 
fused. With  the  killing  of  Chaikika,  and  many  of  his  men, 
and  the  consequent  destruction  of  his  band  of  desperate 
Spanish  Indians,  virtually  ended  the  Indian  troubles  in 
Florida. 

Colonel  Harney  had  been  in  the  active  service  for  three 
years,  and  his  vigilance,  industry  and  superior  ability,  and 
experience  to  circumvent  the  tricks  of  the  Indians,  and 
defeat  and  disperse  them  in  their  own  fastnesses,  proved 
him  to  be,  without  doubt,  the  most  efficient  officer  in  the 
Florida  war,  and  the  one  who  did  more  than  any  other 
man  to  bring  that  long  and  vexatious  trouble  to  an  end. 

"  The  war  with  the  Seminoles  in  Florida,"  says  a  histo- 
rian of  that  war,  "  was  certainly  the  most  unsatisfactory  and 
least  glorious  one  in  which  our  country  has  ever  been 
engaged.  Millions  of  dollars  were  expended  upon  it  with- 
out any  apparent  result.  The  ablest  Generals  of  the  coun- 
try, those  who  had  won  laurels  from  Wellington's  veterans 
many  years  before,  and  have  since  overthrown  army  after 
army  in  Mexico,  were  baffled  and  enervated ;  the  Govern- 
ment was  disgraced  at  home  and  abroad  ;  and  a  handful  of 
roving,  plundering  savages  rendered  one  of  the  finest  por- 
tions of  our  country  almost  uninhabitable,  and  its  name  a 
fell  word  of  terror  which  even  now  frequently  lingers  on 
the  ear,  as  a  remembrance  of  some  dream. 

"  The  leader  of  the  Indians,  Osceola,  notwithstanding  his 
being  compared  with  the  unfortunate  hero  of  Mount  Hope, 
was  a  kind  of  political  Wigfall,  and  despised  by  many  of  the 
savages  themselves.  Most  of  his  followers  were  like  him- 
self, and  almost  all  the  bands  who  were  active  in  their  out- 


SECOND  FLORIDA  WAR.  147 

rages  upon  the  whites  were  composed  of  Indians  and  run- 
away negroes. 

"  There  is,  however,  reason  to  beheve  that  the  Florida 
war  was  hastened,  perhaps  actually  caused,  by  the  impru- 
dence of  the  whites  themselves.  Individual  license  com- 
mitted in  direct  opposition  to  the  will  of  the  Government, 
and  without  its  knowledge,  led  to  acts  of  retaliation.  These 
in  turn  were  revenged,  until  parties  assumed  an  attitude  to 
which  the  only  alternative  was  war." 

Without  regard  to  the  question  of  official  rank,  when 
Colonel  Harney  got  the  scalp  of  the  great  Chaikika,  he 
also  won  for  himself  the  crowning  honors  of  bringing  the 
Florida  war  to  a  close.  His  services  from  the  time  he  first 
reported  for  duty  in  Florida,  were,  beyond  question,  more 
efficient  than  those  of  any  other  officer  in  the  field,  and 
his  whole  labors  were  governed  by  the  single  purpose  that 
a  trouble  existed  in  Florida  that  must  be  terminated,  and 
to  that  end  he  constantly  addressed  himself,  until  that  end 
was  achieved,  and  the  national  authority  acknowledged 
throughout  the  peninsula,  and  the  security  of  life  and  the 
undisturbed  pursuits  of  industry  and  education  regarded 
and  protected.  For  these  beneficent  ends  belongs  more 
honor  to  Colonel  Harney  than  to  any  other  man,  and  for 
his  services  thus  rendered  will  history  make  a  grateful 
record,  and  the  patriotic  people  will  speak  his  praise  along 
the  pathway  of  the  future. 

The  great  soldier,  like  the  great  statesman,  makes  the 
occasions  and  the  events  with  which  he  is  connected,  great^ 
and  such  has  been  the  character  of  General  Harney.  Upon 
nearly  every  event  of  his  life  he  has  impressed  greatness  ; 
demonstrated  the  great  soldier  and  the  determined  man ; 
in  the  camp  the  conspicuous  and  noted  hero. 

During  the  terrible  and  perilous  trials  incident  to  military 
duty  in  Florida,  Colonel  Harney  was  compelled  to  make 
two  trips  to  Cuba  for  his  health.  The  first  time,  in  1840, 
a  tendency  to  pulmonary  consumption,  with  a  threatening 


148  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  his  life,  led  to  a  hasty  visit  to  Havana,  as  a  refuge  from 
exposure  and  a  shield  of  his  life.  On  leaving  for  Cuba, 
although  alarmed  at  his  own  condition,  he  wrote  his  wife 
in  a  manner  to  disabuse  her  mind  of  danger,  but  she, 
though  far  away,  prompted  by  the  tender  sympathies  of  a 
devoted  woman,  suspecting  the  letter  to  be  written  in  dis- 
guise, at  once  packed  her  trunks  and  took  her  children  and 
left  for  Cuba,  where  she  knew  danger  was  crouching  around 
her  distant  and  exposed  husband.  She  made  the  trip  and 
found  Colonel  Harney  at  the  capital  of  the  Island.  A  brief 
stay  and  his  health  was  restored,  and  he  again  repaired  to 
the  field  of  active  duty,  and  his  family  returned  home. 

In   March,   1841,  Colonel  Harney  was  again  absent  on 
leave  until  December,  1842. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 

y_-yEXAS,  a  province  of  Mexico,  had  received  large  ac- 
I  cessions  of  population  from  American  settlers.  This 
immigration  had  been  induced  by  large  and  liberal 
grants  of  lands,  and  from  other  causes.  Not  the  least 
among  these  causes  was  the  fact  that  being  a  foreign  coun- 
try, many  fugitives  from  justice  from  the  States  availed 
themselves  of  it  as  an  asylum  where  processes  of  courts 
could  not  reach,  and  many  debtors,  in  desperate  circum- 
stances, forced  by  the  hard  times,  had  also  sought  a  chance 
to  make  a  new  start  in  life,  secure  from  the  importunities 
of  creditors.  The  settlers  were  a  hardy  and  enterprising 
race,  impatient  of  restraint,  but  preserving  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  the  Anglo-Saxon-American,  they  main- 
tained, in  a  rough  and  summary  manner,  order  and  the 
substance  of  justice,  too  often  without  the  forms.  The 
population  was  sparse,  and  scattered  over  a  large  extent  of 
territory.  They  recognized  themselves  as  a  part  of  the 
United  States  of  Mexico,  and  were  loyal  in  their  allegiance 
to  the  authority  of  the  government  of  their  adoption. 

In  1835,  by  a  revolution.  General  Santa  Anna  became 
President,  and  by  a  protiunciamento  changed  .the  form  of 
the  government,  so  as  to  consolidate  it  by  changing  its 
federal  character  and  destroying  the  sovereign  rights  of  the 
States.  The  States  of  Texas  and  Tamaulipas  protested 
against  the  usurpation  as  a  violation  of  the  Constitution, 
and  the  result  was  their  rebellion  and  ultimate  independ- 
ence, which  was  accomplished  and  acknowledged  after  the 
battle  of  San  Jacinto,  April  21,  1836. 

During  the  revolution  large  bodies  of  volunteers  from  the 

149 


150  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

United  States  went  to  the  assistance  of  the  strugghng 
Texans.  In  1837,  the  RepubHc  of  Texas  expressed  a  wish 
for  annexation  to  the  United  States,  but  the  latter  rejected 
the  proposal.  Another  effort  was  made  during  the  Presi- 
dency of  John  Tyler,  but  was  not  consummated.  The 
scheme  of  annexation  was,  however,  persisted  in,  and  be- 
coming more  popular  with  the  people,  was  finally  accom- 
plished and  ratified  by  the  United  States  Senate,  on  certain 
conditions,  March  1st,  1845.  The  Mexican  Minister  at 
Washington,  acting  under  instructions  from  his  govern- 
ment, exerted  all  his  power  and  influence  to  prevent  the 
annexation.  He  protested  most  solemnly  against  it  as  an 
"  act  of  aggression,  the  most  unjust  that  can  be  found  in 
the  annals  of  modern  history,  nameh',  that  of  despoiling  a 
friendly  nation,  like  Mexico,  of  a  considerable  portion  of 
her  territory."  The  Minister  applied  for  his  passports  and 
returned  home. 

The  annexation  had  been  rather  precipitated  b}'  the 
apprehension  at  Washington,  that  the  Texans,  too  weak 
to  sustain  themselves  against  ^Mexico,  and  being  largel}-  an 
English-speaking  people,  would  place  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  Great  Britain,  and  become  a  part  of  that 
powerful  Empire.  President  Monroe  had,  in  1821,  an- 
nounced the  doctrine,  called  since  by  his  name,  which  has 
been  religiously  enforced,  "  that  no  foreign  power,  with  the 
consent  of  the  United  States,  will  be  permitted  to  plant  or 
establish  any  new  colony  or  dominion  on  the  North  Ameri- 
can continent."  The  acquisition  of  Texas  by  Great  Britain 
would  probably  involve  us  in  a  war  with  that  power,  while 
on  the  other  hand  annexation  threatened  war  with  Mexico. 
The  project  of  annexation  to  Great  Britain  had  many  in- 
fluential advocates  among  the  Texans,  among  others  the 
most  popular  and  ablest  of  their  Generals  and  statesmen, 
the  ex-President,  Houston.  General  Houston  had  com- 
manded the  Texan  army,  and  defeated  Santa  Anna  at  San 
Jacinto.      He  was  unwilling  for  his  State  to  knock  importu- 


HOUSTON  AT  SAN  JACINTO. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLlHOiS 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I  53 

nately  at  the  door  of  the  American  Congress  for  adniission 
into  the  family  of  the  Union,  and  was  favorable  to  the 
British  alliance. 

General  Houston  was  a  Tennessean,  and  a  representative 
man  of  the  early  Texas  patriots.  His  career  had  been 
marked  by  many  adventures.  Distinguished  for  his  ability 
in  his  native  State,  he  had  won  both  civic  and  military 
laurels.  All  his  prospects  for  political  preferment  he  had 
suddenly  abandoned  at  an  early  day,  when  he  disappeared 
from  his  former  haunts  to  re-appear  after  years  as  the 
patriot  leader  of  the  Texans  in  their  revolution.  His  wis- 
dom and  sagacity  were  eminent  qualifications  for  his  high 
position,  while  his  eccentricities  and  peculiar  habits  well 
befitted  him  for  the  leader  of  the  hardy,  rough,  and  primi- 
tive people  who  were  settled  in  Texas. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  Mexican  minister  to  his  own 
country,  all  official  intercourse  between  the  two  countries 
was  closed,  and  the  popular  indignation  was  so  great  that 
President  Herrera,  who  favored  an  adjustment  with  the 
United  States  by  treaty,  was  deposed  or  compelled  to  re- 
sign, and  General  Paredes  elected  to  succeed  him.  Presi- 
dent Polk  sent  a  special  envoy  to  the  Republic  of  Mexico 
in  the  person  of  Mr.  Slidell,  but  General  Paredes  refused  to 
assent  to  negotiations.  On  the  1st  of  March,  1845,  the 
Mexican  Government  refused  formally  to  recognize  Mr. 
Slidell,  and  the  American  minister  returned  home.  In  the 
meantime  President  Polk  determined  to  send  an  armed 
force  into  Texas,  and  the  American  squadron  took  a  con- 
venient position  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  announced  in 
his  message  of  December,  1845,  that  "the  moment  the 
terms  of  annexation  offered  by  the  United  States  were 
accepted  by  Texas,  the  latter  became  so  far  a  part  of  our 
country  as  to  make  it  our  duty  to  afford  protection  and 
defense  against  menaced  attack."  The  army  and  navy 
were  rapidly  concentrated  and  in  position,  but  were  spe- 
cially  instructed    "to   commit   no  act   of  hostility  against 


154  LIFE  OF  GENF,RAL  HARNEY. 

Mexic(),  unless  she  declared  war  or  was  herself  the  aggres- 
sor by  striking  the  first  blow."  General  Zachary  Taylor 
had  been  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  corps  of  obser- 
vation, and  concentrate  at  a  convenient  point  on  the 
Western  frontier,  at  or  near  the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte. 
His  instructions  were  to  confine  his  operations  to  the  de- 
fense of  the  border,  unless  Mexico  should  first  declare  war 
against  the  United  States. 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney  reported  from  his  leave  of 
absence  to  his  command  (the  Second  Dragoons),  then 
under  Colonel  David  E.  Twiggs,  and  serving  in  Texas. 
This  was  in  October,  1845.  In  August  previous,  General 
Taylor,  with  all  his  forces,  concentrated  at  Corpus  Christi, 
where  he  remained  until  the  iith  day  of  March,  1846,  at 
which  time  he  pushed  forward  to  the  Rio  Grande. 

While  General  Taylor  was  at  Corpus  Christi,  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Harney,  with  six  companies  of  dragoons,  was  sta- 
tioned at  San  Antonio.  While  in  this  duty  he  heard  the 
Mexicans  were  assembling  on  the  Rio  Grande,  west  of  San 
Antonio.  He  determined  to  push  forward,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  reconnoissance  and  the  protection  of  the  frontier, 
and  before  the  arrival  of  General  Wool  he  collected  a 
force  of  seven  hundred  men.  IMaking  hastily  his  prepara- 
tions, his  officers  called  his  attention  to  the  want  of  artil- 
lery, and  suggested  he  should  send  to  Victoria  for  two 
pieces  of  cannon.  This  would  delay  the  expedition  and 
involve  the  loss  of  valuable  time.  Colonel  Harney  inquired 
if  the  Mexicans  had  any  artillery,  and  upon  being  told 
they  had  field  pieces  and  ordnance  of  excellent  character, 
replied  :  "  Well,  then,  we  will  go  and  take  them  ;  they  will 
.suit  me  exactly."  With  his  command  he  pushed  forward 
to  the  Rio  Grande,  which  he  reached  some  two  hundred 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  that  stream.  Keeping  his  troops 
in  about  fifteen  miles  of  the  Rio  (irande,  he  sent  out  scouts, 
who  soon  reported  the  enemy  in  large  force.  He  took 
with   him   fifteen   picked   men  and  made  a  reconnoissance 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I  55 

himself.  He  found  the  IMexican  troops  gone,  whereupon 
he  crossed  the  Rio  Grande  and  advanced  to  the  town  of 
Presidio,  where  the  Alcalde  waited  on  him  and  placed  the 
town  and  its  inhabitants  under  his  protection.  He  pre- 
ser\'ed  discipline  and  guarded  the  town  in  the  most  careful 
manner.  From  here  he  determined  to  move  upon  Monte- 
rey, and  called  a  council  of  his  officers.  The\'  all  opposed 
the  project,  and  he  was  forced  to  abandon  his  purpose. 
But  the  news  of  the  crossing  of  the  Rio  Grande  reached 
San  Antonio,  and  quite  a  number  of  Texans,  some  of  whom 
had  seen  service  in  the  war  of  1836,  organized  a  volunteer 
force  to  reinforce  and  support  him.  The\',  however,  could 
not  reach  him  till  he  had  fallen  back  into  Texas.  While 
at  Presidio,  he  collected  supplies,  which  he  left  under  guard 
of  sixty  men,  who,  shortly  after  his  departure,  became 
panic-stricken,  burnt  the  stores  and  retreated  after  him. 

General  Wool,  in  the  meantime,  had  reached  San  Anto- 
nio and  assumed  command  of  the  military  district. 
He  sent  a  positive  and  imperative  order  to  Lieuten- 
ant Colonel  Harney  to  return,  but  before  the  order  was 
dispatched  Colonel  Harney  was  already  on  his  way  from 
Presidio  to  San  Antonio.  The  order  was  followed  by 
another  one,  ordering  Colonel  Harney  in  arrest  and  placing 
Major  Bell  in  command  of  the  troops.  On  reaching  San 
Antonio,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney  reported  to  General 
Wool.  He  refused  to  shake  hands  with  that  officer,  and 
demanded  to  know  the  occasion  of  his  arrest,  and  what 
charges  were  lodged  against  him.  General  Wool  replied, 
that  he  ordered  him  in  arrest  because  he  feared  he  would 
disobey  the  order  to  return,  and  that  the  people  of  San 
Antonio  had  assured  him  Colonel  Harnej'  would  not  return 
under  the  orders.  Colonel  Harney  rejoined,  with  a 
reproach  to  the  General  for  paying  attention  to  the  idle  gos- 
sip and  talk  of  the  people,  and  proceeding  to  such  a  grave 
extremity  as  placing  an  officer  in  arrest  upon  such  trivial 
cause. 


156  '  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

At  the  Arroyo  Colorado,  General  Taylor  was  met  by  a 
party  of  Mexican  stragglers,  who  showed  a  disposition  to 
oppose  his  crossing,  but  they  soon  fled  and  dispersed.  On 
the  24th  of  March  the  American  General  occupied  and 
took  possession  of  Point  Isabel.  The  Mexican  people 
displayed  a  sullen  and  inhospitable  disposition  not  to  be 
mistaken,  and  a  deputation  met  General  Taylor,  who  pro- 
tested against  his  march  with  threats  of  war  if  still  per- 
sisted in.  They  went  so  far  as  to  set  fire  to  some  buildings 
at  Point  Isabel,  which  was  promptly  extinguished  by  Col- 
onel Twiggs'  command.  Leaving  a  garrison  of  four  hundred 
and  fifty  men  and  ten  pieces  of  artillery  at  this  point,  under 
command  of  Major  John  Monroe,  well  supplied  with  stores 
and  ammunition.  General  Taylor  continued  to  move  for- 
ward, and  on  the  28th  occupied  a  point  on  the  Rio 
Grande  opposite  Matamoras.  Here  General  Taylor  sent 
Brigadier  General  Worth  with  despatches  to  the  Mexican 
authorities.  A  Mexican  delegation  refused  to  receive  them 
and  denied  General  Worth  an  interview  with  the  American 
Consul  at  that  city.  This  sullen  and  defiant  behavior  boded 
ill  prospect  of  peace,  and  it  behooved  General  Taylor  to 
make  his  best  disposition  for  war,  and  he  immediately  com- 
menced the  fortifications  which  were  afterwards  called  F"ort 
Brown.  The  works  progressed  rapidly,  more  than  a  thou- 
sand men  being  at  work  night  and  day.  Another  untoward 
event  exasperated  the  American  troops,  and  produced  a 
profound  sensation  throughout  the  United  States.  Colonel 
Truman  Cross,  an  American  officer  of  high  rank  and  rep- 
utation, was  murdered  by  a  party  of  Mexicans,  under  the 
command  of  a  IMe.xican  officer  named  Falcon.  He  disap- 
peared on  the  tenth  day  of  April,  and  eleven  days  after- 
wards his  body  was  found  some  distance  from  the  camp, 
stripped  and  half  eaten  by  vultures.  It  had  been  hoped 
he  was  n7.ade  prisoner  by  the  Mexicans,  and  was  confined 
in  some  prison.  He  had  been,  however,  surprised  while 
riding  out  alone,  by  a  band  of  marauders ;    had  been  shot 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I  57 

by  Falcon  and  robbed.  Previous  to  the  murder  of  Colonel 
Cross,  General  Ampudia  had  largely  reinforced  the  gar- 
rison at  Matamoras.  The  Mexican  inhabitants  were  enthu- 
siastic, and  bitterly  vindictive  against  the  Americans. 
General  Ampudia,  whose  reputation  for  villainy  and  cru- 
elty became  'so  conspicuous  subsequently,  addressed  a  note 
to  General  Taylor,  requesting  him  to  immediately  break  up 
his  camp  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  fall  back  upon  the  Nueces. 
He  cautioned  General  Taylor  if  he  insisted  on  remaining 
on  the  south  of  Tamaulipas,  the  result  would  be  that  arms 
and  arms  alone  must  decide  the  questions  at  issue. 
General  Ampudia  said :  "  I  advise  you  that  we  accept 
the  war  which,  with  so  much  injustice  on  your  part,  you 
provoke,  and  that  on  our  part  this  war  shall  be  conducted 
conformably  to  the  principles  of  the  most  civilized 
nations,  that  is  to  say,  the  laws  of  war  shall  be  the  guide  of 
my  operations,  trusting  that  on  your  part  the  same  will  be 
observed.  "  The  Mexican  government  claimed  that  the 
Nueces,  and  not  the  Rio  Grande,  was  the  border  of  Texas, 
and  that  all  that  part  west  of  the  Nueces,  formerly  of  the 
State  of  Tamaulipas,  and  other  States,  was  still  Mexican 
Territory.  The  inhabitants  within  this  belt  of  land  were 
mainly  of  Mexican  origin  and  in  sympathy  with  the  Mexi- 
can government.  General  Taylor  replied,  that  his  instruc- 
tions would  not  allow  him  to  move  back  to  the  Nueces,  and 
expressed  his  regret  that  General  Ampudia  had  offered 
him  only  the  alternative  of  war.  He  assured  the  Mexi- 
can commander,  however,  that  he  should  by  no  means 
avoid  such  an  alternative,  but  would  leave  the  responsibility 
of  its  horrors  and  sufferings  to  those  who  rashly  provoked  it. 
General  Taylor,  in  spite  of  Ampudia's  threat,  continued 
to  press  his  fortifications  to  completion.  He  soon  mounted 
a  battery  of  two  eighteen-pounders,  covering  the  city  of 
IMatamoras,  with  which,  if  necessary,  he  could  batter  down 
the  place,  and  extended  his  field-works  and  armament,  with 
which,  if  properly  defended,  five  hundred   men  could  hold 


I5S  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HAKNEV. 

it  against  five  thousand  Mexicans,  The  Mexicans,  in  the 
meantime,  were  not  idle,  and  they  entrenched  themselves 
for  about  two  miles  in  front  of  the  Americans,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  Lieutenant  Porter,  an  officer 
who  had  been  detailed  with  Lieutenant  Dobbins'  Third 
Infantry  on  the  duty  of  searching  for  the  body  of  Colonel 
Cross,  was,  on  the  19th  of  April,  and  before  the  body  was 
found,  attacked  by  some  Mexican  marauders,  about  eigh- 
teen miles  above  General  Taylor's  camp.  The  Americans 
had  been  exposed  to  a  heavy  rain,  and  their  powder  was 
wet.  The  party  scattered  in  the  thickets.  News  came  on 
the  24th  that  Porter  and  a  private  soldier  had  been  killed. 
This  affair  produced  a  profound  sensation  and  greatly  exas- 
perated the  Americans.  On  the  17th  day  of  April  two 
American  schooners,  bound  for  Matamoras,  were  warned 
off  the  coast,  and  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande  was  declared 
in  a  state  of  blockade.  General  Ampudia  addressed  an 
angry  communication  to  General  Taylor,  in  which  he  made 
threats  of  serious  result  if  the  blockade  was  not  raised. 
General  Taylor  replied  that  the  blockade  had  been  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  action  of  the  Mexican  authorities. 
The  Mexicans  began  to  address  proclamations  and  appeals 
to  the  soldiers  of  foreign  birth  in  General  Taylor's  army, 
asking  them  to  abandon  the  American  standard  and  become 
peaceful  Mexican  citizens. 

After  the  proclamation  of  blockade,  parties  of  Mexicans 
began  to  cross  the  Rio  Grande  above  and  below  General 
Taylor's  entrenchments.  This  necessitated  such  disposi- 
tions as  would  provide  against  being  surrounded  and  sur- 
prised. Captain  Thornton  was  placed  in  command  of  a 
reconnoitcring  party  of  dragoons.  He  had  proceeded 
about  twenty-four  miles,  when  he  was  ambushed  by  a  party 
of  Mexicans  concealed  in  a  chaparral  fence.  After  a 
severe  conflict,  in  which  the  Americans  were  at  great  dis- 
advantage, the  whole  party  were  forced  to  surrender  on  the 
terms  of  being  treated  as   prisoners  of  war.      The   terms 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I  59 

were  observed,  and  this  engagement  was  the  virtual  com- 
mencement of  the  war.  The  Mexicans  were  greatly  elated 
over  their  first  success.  They  crossed  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
invested  the  country  between  Fort  Brown  and  Point  Isabel, 
threatening  Taylor's  communication.  Captain  Walker,  a 
noted  Texas  Ranger,  in  an  attempt  to  open  communica- 
tions with  General  Taylor,  started  from  Point  Isabel,  with 
about  seventy-five  men.  He  was  defeated  by  a  large  body 
of  Mexicans,  and  driven  back  upon  Major  Monroe's  forti- 
fications. This  affair  occurred  on  the  28th  day  of  April. 
Captain  Walker  succeeded,  with  six  men,  in  opening 
communications  with  General  Taylor,  at  Fort  Brown,  and 
as  soon  as  that  officer  ascertained  the  enemy  was  threat- 
ening Point  Isabel  in  force,  he  determined  to  march  his 
whole  army  to  its  relief.  Leaving  Major  Jacob  Brown  in 
command  of  the  fort,  with  six  hundred  men,  he  marched 
on  the  first  day  of  May.  On  the  3d  of  ]\Iay  a  battery  at 
Matamoras  opened  fire  on  Fort  Brown.  It  was  answered 
by  the  American  batteries  of  eighteen-pounders. 

On  the  second  day  the  gallant  commander  of  Fort  Brown 
was  killed  by  a  bombshell,  and  the  command  devolved  on 
Captain  Hawkins,  who  made  a  gallant  defense,  being  in 
great  peril,  when  on  the  8th  day  of  May,  Taylor  attacked 
the  Mexican  army  under  General  Arista,  and  on  the  day 
following  signally  defeated  them.  The  Mexicans  threw 
away  their  arms  and  fled  in  all  directions.  The  result 
of  these  two  days'  fights  was,  that  the  Mexicans  fled 
across  the  river.  In  these  engagements  Colonel  Twiggs 
commanded  the  left  wing  of  the  army,  and  only  a  por- 
tion of  the  second  dragoons  were  engaged  in  it.  The 
remainder,  under  Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney,  being,  as 
we  have  stated,  under  General  Wool,  at  San  An- 
tonio. 

It  was  only  a  few  days  until  the  American  arm}-  was  in 
possession  of  Matamoras,  and  on  the  30th  of  June,  1846, 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Harney  was  promoted  to  the  full  rank 


l60  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  Colonel,  in  the  place  of  Colonel  Twiggs,  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  Brigadier. 

Colonel  Harney  was  ordered,  after  the  occupation  of 
Matamoras  by  the  Americans,  to  rejoin  his  regiment,  to  the 
Colonelcy  of  which  he  soon  succeeded.  He,  in  company 
with  Brigadier  General  Shields,  with  an  escort  of  only  fifteen 
men,  set  out  to  report  to  General  Taylor  at  Matamoras. 
The  route  was  full  of  peril,  and  the  escort  so  scanty 
that  it  was  a  most  hazardous  undertaking,  as  they  had  to 
pass  through  a  country  full  of  enemies.  On  their  route 
tliey  had  to  march  one  day  without  fresh  water,  all  the 
pools  and  springs  for  thirty  miles  being  salt  or  brackish, 
and  unfit  to  drink.  On  reaching  Monterey,  he  was  ordered 
to  report  to  General  W.  O.  Butler.  This  placed  him,  very 
much  against  his  will,  again  under  the  command  of  General 
Wool,  from  whom  he  had  suffered  the  indignity  of  an  arrest 
at  San  Antonio.  As  neither  General  Taylor  nor  General 
Butler  had  power  to  change  his  orders,  he  obeyed  and 
reported  to  General  Wool  beyond  Saltillo.  On  reporting 
to  General  Wool,  he  refused  again  to  give  him  his  hand. 
General  Wool  sent  Colonel  Harney  with  his  dragoons  to 
the  front,  at  a  place  called  Aqua  Caliente.  From  this 
place  they  made  a  reconnoissance  to  the  front,  in  which 
they  failed  to  find  the  enemy.  On  returning  to  Aqua 
Caliente,  he,  took  up  his  quarters  in  a  church,  the  only 
quarters  they  could  find.  Here  he  and  his  officers  regaled 
themselves,  after  their  fatigue,  with  egg-nogs.  In  the  midst 
of  the  festivities,  a  courier  arrived  with  a  dispatch  from 
General  Wool,  ordering  his  immediate  return,  as  the  enemy, 
so  the  dispatch  said,  was  advancing.  Colonel  Harney  read 
the  dispatch  to  his  officers,  and  knowing  there  was  no 
enemy,  bivouacked  for  the  night.  On  the  following  morn- 
ing he  fell  back  upon  the  main  body,  and  reported  to  Gen- 
eral Wool,  who  reproached  him  with  his  tardiness.  Col- 
onel Harney  explained  that  he  knew  there  was  no  enemy, 
and   that  General  Wool's  information  was  false.     He  said 


CC.-^/^-/-/  ^'-^rf 


tEW    or   Th- 


OF  m 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  l6l 

to  General  Wool,  "If  you  had  inquired  of  me,  I  could  have 
told  you,  from  my  own  knowledi^c,  there  was  no  enemy." 
Colonel  Harney  was  next  ordered  to  report  to  General 
Taylor,  where  he  was  assigned  to  duty  with  General  Worth. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY, 


^OLONEL  BENTON,  in  an  eulogy  delivered  in  the 
i  United  States  Senate,  on  tlie  occasion  of  the  announce- 
ment of  the  death  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  dwells 
particularly  on  the  petty  jealousies  with  which  the  military 
service  of  the  country  was  cursed  during  the  Seminole  and 
war  of  1812.  He  shows  how  difficult  it  was  to  get  for  the 
best  and  greatest  soldier  of  his  time  a  command  suitable 
to  his  merits  and  ability,  or  to  procure  from  the  military 
authorities  at  Washington  a  recognition  of  the  merits  and 
eminent  services  of  the  conqueror  of  Florida  and  defender 
of  New  Orleans  ;  and  how  it  was  only  extorted  after  the 
voice  of  the  people  of  the  nation,  more  just  and  discrimi- 
nating than  the  Government  itself,  had  placed  the  patriot 
soldier  in  civic  and  in  military  honors  high  above  those  who 
sought  to  ignore  and  degrade  him.  It  has  been  the  ex- 
perience of  every  true  soldier  that  the  exigencies  of  the 
service  demand  of  him  sometimes  a  patient  endurance  of 
wrong  from  his  superiors ;  wrong  for  which  there  is  no 
remedy  or  compensation. 

It  was  the  fate  of  Colonel  Harne}'  at  this  time  to  suffer 
at  the  liands  of  Major  General  Winfield  Scott  an  injury 
gratuitous  and  unjust,  if  not  malicious,  as  well  as  capricious. 
That  General  had,  as  soon  as  the  brilliant  victories  of  Gen- 
eral Taylor  in  1846,  had  earned  him  a  rei)utation  and  rank 
among  soldiers,  ennobling  as  it  was  honorable,  so  planned 
the  war  that  it  would  look  like  he  deliberately  intended  to 
neutralize  his  great  talents  and  skill  and  deprive  his  country 
of  his  best  services.      General  Scott  determined  to  take  the 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY,  163 

field  himself,  and  the  command  in  person.  He  accordingly 
went  to  the  seat  of  war,  and  formed  his  plans  for  an  advance 
on  the  City  of  Mexico  from  Vera  Cruz,  but  so  planned  his 
campaign  as  to  leave  Taylor  a  most  difficult  and  almost 
impossible  duty  to  perform,  while  he  deprived  him  of  the 
means  of  maintaining  himself,  even  on  the  defensive,  at  the 
same  time  that  his  orders  demanded  of  him  to  take  the 
field  offensively. 

A  letter  of  Major  General  Taylor  to  Major  General  Scott, 
dated  at  camp  near  Victoria,  January  15,  1847,  which  suf- 
ficiently explains  itself,  and  is,  for  the  information  of  .the 
reader,  inserted  entire  : 

Head-quarters,  Army  of  Occupation,       \ 
Camp  near  Victoria,  Mexico,  Jarmary  75,  184.'/.  J 

Sir:  In  a  communication  addressed  this  day  to  your 
staff-officer,  I  have  replied  to  so  much  of  your  letter  of  the 
6th  instant,  and  its  enclosures,  as  relates  to  points  of  detail ; 
but  there  are  other  and  grave  topics  embraced  in  those 
communications,  to  which  I  deem  it  my  right  and  my  duty 
to  reply  directly. 

The  amount  of  force  to  be  drawn  from  this  frontier,  and 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  proposed  to  withdraw  it,  had 
never  fully  come  to  my  knowledge  until  yesterday,  though 
Tiinted  at  in  your  note  of  November  25.  Had  you.  General, 
relieved  me  at  once  of  the  whole  command,  and  assigned 
me  to  duty  under  your  orders,  or  allowed  me  to  retire  from 
the  field,  be  assured  that  no  complaint  would  have  been 
heard  from  me  ;  but  while  almost  every  man  of  my  regular 
force,  and  half  the  volunteers,  (now  in  respectable  disci- 
pline) are  withdrawn  for  distant  service,  it  seems  that  I  am 
expected,  with  less  than  a  thousand  regulars  and  a  volun- 
teer force,  partly  of  new  levies,  to  hold  a  defensive  line, 
while  a  large  army  of  more  than  twenty  thousand  men  is  in 
my  front. 

I  speak  only  of  a  defensive  line ;  for  the  idea  of  assuming 
offensive  operations  in  the  direction  of  San  Luis  by  March, 
or  even  May,  with  such  troops  as  can  then  be  at  my  dispo- 
sition,  is   quite   too   preposterous  to   be  entertained   for  a 


164  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

moment.  After  all  that  I  have  written  to  the  department, 
on  the  subject  of  such  operations,  I  find  it  difficult  to  be- 
lieve that  I  am  seriously  expected  to  undertake  them,  with 
the  extraordinarily  limited  means  at  my  disposal. 

I  cannot  misunderstand  the  object  of  the  arrangements 
indicated  in  your  letters.  I  feel  that  I  have  lost  the  confi- 
dence of  the  Government,  or  it  would  not  have  suffered  me 
to  remain,  up  to  this  time,  ignorant  of  its  intentions,  with 
so  vitally  affecting  interests  committed  to  my  charge  But, 
however  much  I  may  feel  personally  mortified  and  outraged 
at  the  course  pursued,  unprecedented  at  least  in  our  own 
history,  I  will  carry  out  in  good  faith,  while  I  remain  in 
Mexico,  the  views  of  the  Government,  though  I  may  be 
sacrificed  in  the  effort. 

I  deeply  regret  to  find  in  your  letters,  of  Januar\-  3d,  to 
Major  General  Butler  and  myself,  an  allusion  to  my  posi- 
tion here,  which  I  can  but  consider  an  insinuation  that  I 
have  put  myself,  willingly,  out  of  the  reach  of  your  com- 
munications. I  beg  leave  to  remark,  that  the  movement 
of  the  troops  in  this  direction,  and  my  own  march  hither, 
were  undertaken  for  public  reasons,  freely  set  forth  in  my 
reports  to  the  Adjutant  General,  one  of  them  being  my 
desire  to  place  in  position  for  embarkation  to  Vera  Cruz, 
should  the  Government  order  an  expedition  to  that  point, 
the  force  (two  thousand  regulars  and  two  thousand  volun- 
teers) which  I  reported  might  be  spared  for  that  service. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be.  General,  your  obedient  servant, 

Z.  TAYLOR. 
Major  General  United  States  Army,  Covimatuiing. 

Major  General  Winfield  Scott, 

Commanding  United  States  A)  my,  Brassos  Island,  Tex. 

Also,  the  reply  of  General  Scott : 

Head-quarters  of  the  Armv, 
Brassos  San  /ago,  January  26,   iS^j. 
Sir:     I    have    received   your    two    letters    of    the    15th 
instant.      There    are    some    expressions     in   those    letters, 
which,  as   I  wish  to  forget  them,   I  shall  not   specify   or 
recall. 

You   intimate  a  preference  for  service   in  my   particular 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  165 

expedition,  to  remaining  in  your  present  position  with 
greatly  reduced  numbers.  I  can  most  truly  respond,  that 
to  take  you  with  me,  as  second  in  command,  would  con- 
tribute greatly  to  my  personal  delight,  and,  I  confidently 
believe,  to  the  success  of  that  expedition.  But  I  could  not 
propose  it  to  you  for  two  reasons,  either  of  which  was  con- 
clusive with  me  at  the  moment:  ist,  I  thought  you  would 
be  left  in  a  higher  and  more  responsible  position  where  you 
are ;  and  2d,  I  knew  that  it  was  not  contemplated  by  the 
Government  to  supersede  you  in,  or  take  you  from  that 
immediate  command. 

If  I  had  been  within  easy  reach  of  you,  at  the  time  I 
called  for  troops  from  your  line  of  operations,  I  should, 
as  I  had  previously  assured  you,  have  consulted  you  fully 
on  all  points,  and,  probably,  might  have  modified  my  call, 
both  as  to  the  number  and  description  of  the  forces  to  be 
taken  from,  or  left  with  you.  As  it  was,  I  had  to  act 
promptly,  and,  to  a  considerable  extent,  in  the  dark.  All 
this,  I  think,  will  be  apparent  to  you  when  you  shall 
review  my  letters. 

I  hope  I  have  left,  or  shall  leave  you,  including  the  new 
volunteers  who  will  soon  be  up,  a  competent  force  to 
defend  the  head  of  your  line  (Monterey)  and  its  communi- 
cations, with  the  depots  in  the  neighborhood.  To  enable 
'^•ou  to  do  this  more  certainly,  I  must  ask  you  to  abandon 
Saltillo,  and  to  make  no  detachments,  except  for  rcconnois- 
sances  and  immediate  defence,  much  beyond  Monterey.  I 
know  this  to  be  the  wish  of  the  Government,  founded  on 
reasons  in  which  I  concur;  among  them,  that  the  enemy 
intends  to  operate  against  small  detachments  and  posts. 

I  fear  that  I  may  be  delayed  here,  or  at  Tampico,  in 
embarking  troops,  till,  perhaps,  the  loth  of  next  month, 
and  again,  a  few  days  more,  at  the  general  rendezvous 
behind  the  island  of  Lobos,  waiting  for  some  of  the  volun- 
teer regiments  for  debarkation,  ordnance,  and  ordnance 
stores. 

Finding  that  Colonel  Smith,  with  two  companies  of  his 
rifle  regiment,  are  at  Tampico,  or  in  its  neighborhood,  I 
shall  take  with  me  his  seven  companies,  now  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and,  perhaps.  Colonel  Curtis' 
regiment  of   Ohio  volunteers,   detained  at  Matamoras.     My 


l66  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

uncertainty  in  respect  to  the  latter,  refers  to  the  number  of 
new  regiments  of  volunteers  that  may  arrive  in  time,  off 
this  bar,  for  my  expedition,  I  shall  not  take  with  me  Cap- 
tain Hunter's  company  of  the  2d  dragoons,  as  it  is  dis- 
mounted. There  will,  however,  be  horses  for  it  here,  in  per- 
haps a  week.  I  shall  leave  instructions  for  him,  when 
mounted,  to  ascend  the  river  to  Camargo,  to  meet  your 
orders.  No  guard  will  be  left  by  me  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Grande.  I  give  you  this  information  that  you  may 
place  a  detachment  there  at  your  own  discretion. 

I  remain,  sir,  with  great  respect,  your  most  obedient  ser- 
vant. 

WINFIELD  SCOTT. 

The  conduct  of  the  commander-in-chief  towards  Colonel 
Harney  was  not  less  unjust,  but  of  a  most  flagrant  charac- 
ter, and  we  desire  to  trace  this  piece  of  petty  persecution 
to  its  origin,  and  then  to  give  the  details,  which  will  enable 
the  reader  to  follow  it  to  its  ultimate  result,  and  the  final 
vindication  of  the  gallant  soldier  before  the  Government 
and  the  country,  as  also  the  rebuke  delivered  by  Secretary 
Marcy  to  the  commander-in-chief,  for  which  the  Secretary 
deserves  the  lasting  gratitude  of  all  who  are  engaged  in  the 
military  service  of  their  country. 

Colonel  Harney  had  grown  up  under  the  shadows  of  the 
Hermitage.  His  father  had  been  the  neighbor  and  friend 
of  General  Jackson,  and  young  Harney,  when  only  a 
Second  Lieutenant,  had  served  with  distinction  on  his  per- 
sonal staff  as  aide-de-camp  at  the  time  Florida  was  being 
ceded  by  Spain  to  the  United  States.  He  enjoyed  the 
confidence  and  esteem  of  General  Jackson,  who  never  gave 
his  confidence  lightly,  and  never  wavered  in  his  friendship 
for  any  one  who  once  gained  it. 

General  Scott  had  not  been  a  friend  of  General  Jackson, 
and  their  differences  had  at  one  time  led  to  a  challenge 
from  General  Jackson,  which  placed  Scott  in  no  enviable 
light,  for  he  declined  to  fight,  on  the  ground  that  "  the 
service   of  the  country  could    not  spare    either  of   them." 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  I67 

Jackson  had  reached  the  Presidency  by  the  spontaneous 
will  of  the  people.  Scott  was  ambitious  to  reach  it,  and 
hoped  the  campaign  in  Mexico  would  place  him  in  reach 
of  the  goal  of  his  ambition.  He  had  always  been  envious 
of  Jackson,  and  was  then  fearful  that  Taylor's  well-earned 
laurels  would  raise  up  another  rival.  He  even  began  to 
perceive  the  shadows  of  the  events  that  did  place  the  hero 
of  Palo  Alto  and  Buena  Vista  in  the  chair  of  Washington. 
The  ridicule  he  incurred  by  his  "  hasty  plate  of  soup  " 
letter,  had  made  him  sensitive  as  well  as  envious,  for  he 
was  so  impatient  of  ridicule  that  it  has  been  said  of  him 
that  he  was  indifferent  as  to  his  reputation  as  a  soldier,  but 
fearful  of  all  criticism  of  his  literary  talents. 

While  he  was  quietly,  as  far  as  he  could,  avenging  him- 
self on  his  immediate  rival,  General  Taylor,  he  took  occa- 
sion to  visit  on  Colonel  Harney,  as  the  friend  of  General 
Jackson,  that  personal  vengeance  he  had  feared  to  attempt 
upon  his  great  and  devoted  friend  and  patron.  Jackson 
had  been  in  a  position  to  challenge  him  to  a  fair  fight,  a 
fight  he  knew  meant  death,  and  his  declining  it  had  expos- 
ed him  to  ridicule  and  contempt,  which  he  had  sought  to 
wipe  away  by  afterwards  sending  a  challenge  to  DeWitt 
Clinton,  a  gentleman  not  in  the  military  service,  and  whose 
principles  and  education  condemned  duelling. 

His  attack  upon  Colonel  Harney  took  the  shape  of  de- 
priving him  of  the  command  of  the  Second  Dragoons,  and 
placing  that  regiment  in  the  command  of  Major  Sumner, 
his  inferior  officer.  This  extraordinary  and  tyrannical 
measure  occurred  just  at  the  moment  the  campaign  was 
opening,  and  the  extraordinary  reason  is  given  that  "  Major 
Sumner,  of  the  Second  Dragoons,"  was  "a  much  safer  and 
more  efficient  commander  than  Colonel  Harney  of  the 
Second."  He  adds,  "  That  particular  command  is  entirely 
too  important  to  the  success  of  my  expedition  to  allow  me 
to  leave  anything  to  hazard  which  it  is  in  my  power  to  con- 
trol in  advance." 


l68  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

The  following  order  was  issued  on  the  226.  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1847: 

Headquarters  of  the  Army, 

Brasses  Sofitiago,  January  22,  18 ^J. 
Sir  :  IMajor-General  Scott  desires  me  to  say,  that  upon 
the  receipt  of  this  communication,  you  will  turn  over  your 
command  to  the  next  senior  officer,  and  proceed  yourself, 
personally,  to  Major-General  Taylor's  head-quarters,  to 
whom  you  will  report  for  duty  with  the  dragoons  that  re- 
main under  his  command. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  &c.,  &c., 

H.  L.  SCOTT, 

A.  A.  A.  General. 
Colonel  W.  S.  Harney, 

2d  Dragoons,  &c.,  Matanioras. 

To  which  Colonel  Harney  replied : 

Head-quarters,  2d  Dragoons, 
]\Iatanioras,  Mexico,  January  2j,  i8^y. 

Sir  :  Your  letter  of  the  22d  instant,  directing  me  to  turn 
over  my  command  and  to  report,  personally,  to  the  head- 
quarters of  IMajor-General  Ta}'lor  for  duty,  with  the  com- 
panies of  my  regiment  there,  has  just  been  received. 

I  cannot  disguise  my  surprise  at  the  unexpected  nature 
of  this  order,  and  my  extreme  regret  that  it  should  have 
been  given  just  at  the  moment  when  my  feelings  were 
deeply  enlisted  in  the  success  of  an  enterprise,  in  which 
I  had  fully  hoped  to  share  the  dangers  and  privations  of 
my  regiment.  It  was  my  ill  fortune  to  be  separated  from 
that  portion  of  the  regiment  which  participated  in  the 
recent  actions  with  the  enemy,  and  I  looked  forward  with 
much  pleasure  and  great  pride  to  the  time  when  I  should 
see  active  service  under  the  orders  of  Major-General  Scott. 
I  shall  not  speak  of  the  injustice  which  I  consider  to  be 
done  in  separating  me  from  seven  companies  of  my  regi- 
ment, and  ordering  me  on  duty  with  the  remaining  two. 
The  bare  mention  of  the  fact,  is  the  only  allusion  which  I 
design  to  make  on  the  present  occasion,  but  it  is  proper  to 
mention  that  those  two  companies,  by  a  letter  which  I  re- 
ceived yesterday  from   General   Worth,  are  expected  here 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  169 

in  seven   or  ten   days,  and  that   I  was   instructed   to  unite 
them  with  that  portion  of  the  regiment  now  here. 

This  fact,  I  must  believe,  escaped  the  attention  of  the 
commanding  General,  when  your  letter  was  written,  and  I 
now  hope  that  he  will  take  it  into  full  consideration,  and 
reverse  the  painful  order  which  I  have  just  received. 

If  other  motives,  to  which  I  dare  not  allude,  influenced 
General  Scott  in  this  decision,  I  have  but  to  remark  that  it 
is  natural  that  he  should  select  those  officers  from  whom  he 
might  expect  a  hearty  co-operation  ;  but  that  to  accomplish 
this  I  do  not  believe  he  would  do  an  act  of  injustice,  and  if 
my  recent  conduct  can  be  taken  as  an  earnest  of  my 
endeavors  to  further  his  views  to  the  fullest  extent,  that  I 
can  appeal  to  it  with  the  greatest  confidence. 

I  have  turned  over  my  command,  and  should  it  not  be 
deemed  expedient  to  change  the  order  under  consideration, 
I  have  to  request  that  I  may  be  informed  at  what  point  I 
may  find  the  head-quarters  of  Major-General  Taylor. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 

Colonel  2d  Dragoons. 

Lieut.  H.  L.  Scott, 
A.  A.  A.  G.  Head-quarters  of  tJie  Army. 

General  Scott,  by  his  Adjutant  General,  replied  as  fol- 
lows : 

Head-quarters  of  the  Army, 
Brassos  Santiago,  January  24,  1847. 

Sir:  Your  communication  of  the  23d  instant,  relative 
to  your  command,  was  this  morning  received,  through 
Brevet  Brigadier  General  Worth,  and  I  am  directed  by 
Major-General  Scott  to  reply  as  follows  : 

When  he  made  his  arrangements,  which  now  cannot  be 
changed,  to  give  Major  Sumner  the  command  of  the  regu- 
lar cavalry  called  for  by  him  (Major-General  Scott)  from 
the  army  under  the  immediate  command  of  Major-General 
Taylor,  he  (Major-General  Scott)  expected  the  detachments 
would  be  made  up,  in  nearly  equal  parts,  from  the  1st  and 
2d  dragoons. 

Besides  the  squadron  of  the  2d,  with  Major-General 
Taylor,  who,  probably,  will  be  back  at  Monterey  to-day  or 


I/O  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

to-morrow,  Captain  Hunter's  company  of  the  same  regi- 
ment is  to  be  soon  mounted,  and  to  return  to  the  orders 
ot'  General  Taylor.  That  general,  it  is  presumed,  (though 
Major-General  Scott  has  not  given,  and  does  not  expect  to 
give  any  order  on  the  subject,)  may,  probably,  unite  the 
two  companies  of  the  1st,  with  the  three  of  the  2d,  all  of 
which  which  will  be  under  his  command,  and,  also,  a  sixth 
company,  (2d  dragoons,)  soon  expected  out  under  Lieuten- 
ant Sibley. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

H.    L.    SCOTT. 
A.  A.  A.  G. 
To  Colonel  W.  S.  Harney, 

2d  Dragoons. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  this  last  letter  General  Harney,  who 
had  turned  over  his  command  to  Major  Sumner,  immedi- 
ately resumed  command  and  addressed  General  Scott  the 
following : 

Matamoras,  Mexico,  January  25,  i8^j. 

Sir:  Your  communication  of  the  24th  instant  was  re- 
ceived last  night,  and  I  hasten  to  return  a  reph'. 

In  my  letter  of  the  23d  I  endeavored  to  explain  my  posi- 
tion, and  to  disabuse  the  mind  of  Major  General-Scott,  in 
relation  to  any  preconceived  views  he  may  have  formed  to 
my  prejudice.  It  was  humiliating  to  do  so,  but  I  deemed 
it  my  duty,  in  the  present  state  of  affairs,  to  make  any  rea- 
sonable sacrifice  to  preserve  harmony,  and  to  enable  me  to 
accompany  this  portion  of  my  regiment  into  the  field. 
Your  reply  has  disappointed  me ;  if  not  a  revocation  of 
your  order,  I  at  least  expected  that  some  good  and  suffi- 
cient reason  would  be  given  for  depriving  me  of  my  regi- 
ment, or  that  reparation  would  be  made  to  me  for  it  in 
another  quarter;  with  this  view  I  relinquished  my  com- 
mand. By  your  letter  referred  to,  you  have  not  only  de- 
prived me  of  my  regiment,  but  you  have  placed  my  junior, 
the  Major  of  my  own  regiment,  in  command  of  it ;  and  the 
imaginary  command,  to  which  you  have  been  pleased  to 
allude,  I  consider  as  entirely  inadequate  to  the  one  you 
would  force  me  to  relinquish,  even  should  it  ever  be  brought 
into  existence.    If  General  Scott  does  not  deem  me  capable 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  I/I 

of  discharging  my  appropriate  duties,  he  may  arrest,  but 
he  shall  not  unresistingly  degrade  me.  It  is  painful  to  be 
driven  to  this  alternative.  I  have  endeavored  to  avoid  the 
issue;  it  has  been  forced  on  me,  and  I  must  abide  the 
judgment  of  my  peers.  As  long  as  I  am  a  Colonel,  I  shall 
claim  the  command  of  my  regiment :  it  is  a  right  whfch  I 
hold  by  my  commission  and  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  no 
authority  short  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  can 
legally  deprive  me  of  it.  In  adopting  this  course,  I  feel 
that  I  am  not  only  defending  my  own,  but  the  rights  of 
every  officer  of  the  army.  It  is  true,  another  course  is  open 
to  me,  but  it  is  well  known  by  your  presence  with  the  army 
that  an  important  expedition  against  the  enemy  is  at  hand, 
and  my  desire  to  participate  in  it  will  not  allow  me  to  await 
redress  by  an  appeal  to  higher  authority.  It  is  in  full  view 
of  all  the  consequences  in  which  I  may  be  involved,  that  I 
have  taken  this  step.  I  do  it  with  no  desire  to  show  a  spirit 
of  insubordination,  but  because  I  believe  my  honor  and  my 
character  as  a  soldier  involved  in  the  issue.  I  have  no 
hope  that  anything  I  may  say  will  alter  your  determina- 
tion:  to  discuss  the  subject  further  would  be  useless,  and  I 
have  only  to  add,  that  I  have  assumed  the  command  of  my 
regiment,  and  will  accompany  it  to  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 

Colonel  2d  Dragoons, 

Major  General  Winfield  Scott, 

Coniniander-in-CJiicf  U.  S.  Army. 

Charges  were  preferred  by  General  Worth,  and  Colonel 
Harney  was  placed  in  arrest  and  a  court-martial  ordered : 

Charges  and  specifications  preferred  against  Colonel  IV.  S, 
Harney,  of  the  2d  regiment  of  dragoon?,. 

CHARGE. 

Disobedience  of  orders  and  insubordinate  conduct. 

Specification  ist.  In  this,  that  Colonel  W.  S.  Harney,  2d 
regiment  of  dragoons,  having  been  instructed  by  Major 
General  Scott,  commanding  the  army,  in   an   official  com- 


172  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

munication  bearing  date  Brasses  Santiago,  22d  January, 
1847,  "to  relinquisli  the  command  of  tliat  portion  of  his, 
the  said  Colonel  Harney's  regiment,  which  had  reached 
Matamoras,  and  then  to  repair  to  the  head-quarters  of,  and 
personally  to  report  to,  Major  General  Ta}'lor,"  did  fail  to 
set  out  as  instructed  as  aforesaid. 

Specification  2d.  In  this,  that  the  said  Colonel  W.  S. 
Harney,  2d  regiment  of  dragoons,  did,  after  having  relin- 
quislied  the  command  of  the  troops  aforesaid,  as  instructed 
as  aforesaid,  resume  the  command  of  tlie  same;  and  that, 
after  receiving  the  reiterated  orders  of  Major  General  Scott, 
dated  Brassos  Santiago,  January  24,  1847,  and  in  defiance 
of  such  repeated  orders. 

This,  near  Matamoras,  Mexico,  on  or  about  the  25th 
January,  1847. 

Testimony. — Written  instructions  of  General  Scott,  dated 
22d  and  24th  January,  1847.  Colonel  Harne}''s  letters  in 
acknowledgment  and  reply,  dated  January  23d,  and  January 
25th,  1847. 

B}-  order  of  General  Wortli : 

J.  C.  PEMBERTOX, 
First  Lieiitenatit,  A.  A.  A.  General. 

Head-quarters  of  the  Army, 
Brassos,    Santiago,  January  28,    1847. 

Sir:  Major-General  Scott  has  just  received  a  charge, 
with  two  specifications  against  you,  signed  b\'  order  of 
Brigadier  General  Worth ;  a  copy  of  which  I  herewith 
enclose. 

Considering  your  well  known  and  long  continued  per- 
sonal hostility  to  Major-General  Scott,  and  that  it  may, 
however  erroneously,  be  supposed  that  a  reciprocal  feeling 
has  been  generated  on  his  part ;  and  considering  the  per- 
fect confidence  that  all  may  entertain  in  the  honor  and 
impartiality  of  our  officers  generally  and  almost  universally, 
I  am  instructed  by  Major  General  Scott  to  say,  you  may,  if 
done  promptly,  select  yourself,  from  the  officers  near  at 
hand,  any  seven,  nine,  eleven,  or  thirteen,  to  compose  the 
court  for  your  trial  on  that  charge  and  its  specifications,  and 
that  he,  Major-General  Scott,  will  immediately  order  them 
to  assemble  accordingly. 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  I73 

As  the  troops  in  this  neighborhood  will  be  required  to 
commence  embarking,  on  arrival  of  the  transports,  now 
hourly  expected  for  them,  a  list  of  the  officers  to  compose 
the  court,  signed  by  your  hand,  is  expected  by  the  return 
of  the  bearer,  and  that  he  will  be  instructed  to  wait  for 
such  list  two  hours  only. 

I  enclose,  to  facilitate  your  action,  a  list  of  the  officers 
for  court-martial  duty  at  camp  Palo  Alto,  from  whom  you 
are  at  liberty  to  select,  as  y'ell  as  from  the  officers  of  the 
2d  dragoons,  regiment  of  mounted  riflemen,  and  infantrx', 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

H.  L.  SCOTT, 
A.  A.  A.    General. 

To  which  Colonel  Harney  replied  : 

Camp  Page,  Texas, 

Jaimary  28,  184.^. 

Sir  :  I  feel  deeply  indebted  to  Major-General  Scott,  for 
his  magnanimity  in  allowing  me  to  select  the  members  of 
my  court,  but  there  are  many  reasons  why  I  should  decline 
this  privilege.  It  is  sufficient  that  I  regard  the  charge  on 
which  I  am  to  be  tried  as  involving  a  general  principle, 
w^iich  shall  not  be  decided  by  a  court  of  my  friends,  or 
persons  from  whom  I  should  look  for  favor,  but  by  impartial 
judges  who  are  to  render  judgment  in  a  case  where  the 
rights  of  all  are  concerned.  Wholly  concurring  in  the 
views  entertained  by  Major  General  Scott,  "  in  the  honor 
of  our  officers  generally  and  almost  universally,"  I  leave 
with  him  the  entire  selection  of  the  court,  requesting  to  be 
excluded  the  first  and  third  officers  named  on  the  list  which 
you  enclosed.  In  regard  to  the  feelings  of  personal  hos- 
tility alluded  to  by  Major  General  Scott,  I  am  not  aware 
that  any  act  of  mine  can  indicate  such  a  feeling  towards 
General  Scott,  so  clearly  as  his  own  attempt  to  remove  me 
from  my  proper  command  will  evince  in  the  estimation  of 
all. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant. 

WILLIAM  S.  HARNEY, 

Colonel  2d  Dragoons. 

Lieutenant  H.  L.  Scott,  A.  D.  C. 


174  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

A  court-martial,  of  which  Colonel  Clarke  was  Judge  Ad- 
vocate, was  convened.  The  Court  made  the  following  find- 
ing, which  was  published  in  General  Orders : 

Head-quarters  of  the  Army, 
Brasses  Satitiago,  February  2,  i8^y. 

I,  At  a  general  court  martial  convened  at  or  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  pursuant  to  general  orders  No. 
5,  of  the  28th  ult.,  and  of  which  Colonel  X.  S.  Clarke,  6th 
Infantry,  is  president,  was  tried  Colonel  W.  S.  Harney,  2d 
regiment  of  dragoons,  on  the  following  charge  and  specifi- 
cations : 

Charge. — Disobedience  of  orders  and  insubordinate  con- 
duct. 

Specification  first.  In  this,  that  Colonel  W.  S.  Harney, 
2d  regiment  of  dragoons,  having  been  instructed  b}'  Major 
General  Winfield  Scott,  commanding  the  arm}',  in  an  official 
communication  bearing  date  Brassos  Santiago,  22d  Jan- 
uary, 1847,  to  relinquish  the  command  of  that  portion  of 
his  (the  said  Colonel  Harney's)  regiment  which  had  reach- 
ed Matamoras,  and  then  to  repair  to  the  head-quarters  of, 
and  personally  report  to,  INlajor  General  Taj'lor,  did  fail  to 
set  out  as  instructed  as  aforesaid. 

Specification  Second.  In  this,  that  the  said  Colonel  W. 
S.  Harney,  2d  regiment  of  dragoons,  did,  after  having 
relinquished  the  command  of  the  troops  aforesaid,  as  in- 
structed as  aforesaid,  resume  the  command  of  the  same, 
and  that,  after  receiving  the  reiterated  orders  of  Major 
General' Scott,  dated  Brassos  Santiago,  January  24,  1847, 
and  in  defiance  of  such  repeated  orders.  This  near  INIata- 
moras,  Mexico,  on  or  about  the  25th  of  January,  1847. 

To  which  the  accused  pleaded  as  follows: 

To  the  first  specification,   "  Guilty." 

To  the  second  specification,  "  Guilty." 

To  the  charge,  "  Guilty,  except  the  words  '  and  insubor- 
dinate conduct!  " 

The  court,  after  deliberation  on  the  testimony  adduced, 
find  the  accused.  Colonel  W.  S.  Harne}',  2d  dragoons,  as 
follows : 

Of  the  first  specification,  confirm  his  plea,  guilty. 

Of  the  second  specification,  confirm  his  plea,  guilty. 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  1 75 

Of  the  charge,  confirm  his  plea,  guilty  of  disobedience 
of  orders,  not  guilty  of  insubordinate  conduct. 

Sentence. — And  the  court  do,  therefore,  sentence  the  said 
Colonel  W.  S,  Harney,  2d  regiment  of  dragoons,  "  to  be 
reprivtatided  in  general  orders.  " 

"  The  court,  in  awarding  this  mild  sentence,  is  moved  by 
the  belief  that  the  accused  has  acted  under  the  impression 
that  he  could  not  legally  be  ordered,  against  his  consent, 
to  separate  himself  from  the  principal  portion  of  his  regi- 
ment ;  and  while  he  has,  in  the  belief  of  the  court,  been 
influenced  by  a  laudable  desire  to  lead  his  regiment  into 
battle,  he  has  overlooked  the  paramount  importance,  espe- 
cially with  an  army  in  the  field,  of  an  immediate  and  an 
unhesitating  obedience  to  orders." 

2.  The  general-in-chief  approves  the  sentence  in  this 
case,  which  he  remits. 

3.  The  general  court  martial,  of  which  Colonel  Clarke  is 
president,  is  dissolved. 

4.  Colonel  Harney,  therefore,  is  released  from  arrest,  and 
will  proceed  to  execute  the  instructions  which  he  received 
from  the  general-in-chief  on  the  24th  ultimo. 

By  command  of  Major  General  Scott. 

H.  L.  SCOTT, 
<  A.  A.  A.   G. 

The  papers  and  documents  were  transmitted  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  War,  who  rebuked  the  commander-in-chief  in 
the  following  letter: 

War  Department, 
Washington,  February  2g,  iS.f.'j. 

Sir  :  I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  28th  ultimo,  (No. 
8,)  with  the  enclosures,  numbered  from  i  to  6,  inclusive,  in 
relation  to  the  arrest  of  Colonel  W.  S.  Harney.  These 
papers  have  been  submitted  to  the  President,  and  I  am 
directed  by  him  to  say  that  he  regrets  the  occurrence. 
Recognizing,  as  he  does  to  the  fullest  extent,  your  rights 
as  commanding  general  in  the  field,  and  disposed  to  sus- 
tain you  in  the  ample  exercise  of  them,  he  is  not  at  liberty, 
as  commander-in-chief,  to  overlook  the  consideration  that 
the  officers  under  you  have  their  rights,  which  it  is  equally 
his  duty  to  sustain. 


176  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

In  the  case  as  you  have  presented  it,  lie  does  not  dis- 
cover a  sufficient  cause  for  the  order  depriving  Colonel 
Harney  of  the  command  which  appropriately  belonged  to 
him,  and  devolving  it  upon  his  inferior  in  rank.  Without 
intending  to  approve  of  the  conduct  of  Colonel  Harney  in 
disobeying  your  orders,  the  President  deems  it  proper  to 
apprise  you  of  his  opinion  that  Colonel  Harney  had  good 
cause  to  complain  of  that  order,  as  derogatory  to  his  rights, 
and  he  hopes  that  the  matter  has  been  reconsidered  by 
you,  and  that  the  Colonel  has  been  restored  to  his  appro- 
priate command. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  L.  MARCY, 

Secretary  of  War. 
Major  General  Winfield  Scott, 

Commanding  the  Army  of  the  U.  S.  in  Mexico. 

On  the  24th  day  of  Februar}',  1847,  General  Scott  wrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  War,  covering  niiie  closely  printed 
pages  of  executive  document  uumber  59,  first  session  of 
30th  Congress.  It  was  full  of  complaints  and  absurdities, 
containing  a  poetic  quotation  or  two,  and  indicated  a 
cacoetJies  scribendi  fit  on  him.  This  letter  deserves  to  be 
analyzed,  as  an  instance  of  how  childish  a  great  soldier 
can  become,  when  he  gives  way  to  a  pedantic  vanity  for 
writing,  and  combines  it  with  an  unreined  political  ambi- 
tion, unworthy  his  great  office.  In  regard  to  his  com- 
plaints as  to  the  case  of  Colonel  Harney,  in  which  the  very 
sentence  of  the  whole  court  martial,  his  own  remission  of 
the  sentence,  and  his  restoration  of  Colonel  Harney  to  his 
command,  which  he  had  compelled  him  to  turn  over  to  an 
officer  junior  in  rank,  junior  in  years,  and  of  less  experi- 
ence and  distinguished  service,  had  of  itself  condemned 
him  and  vindicated   Colonel  Harney. 

The  extract  from  the  Secretar\-'s  reply  is  a  fine  speci- 
men of  irony  and  sarcasm,  but  never  transcends  or  sink-; 
below  the  dignity  and  decorum  of  official  intercourse 
between  a  Cabinet  Minister  and  an  officer  of  the  State.     It 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  1 77 

is  found  in  executive   document  59,   ist  session   30th  Con- 
gress, pages  16  and  17: 

No  man  has  more  reason  than  yourself  to  rejoice  that  no 
order  emanated  from  Washington,  though  requested  by 
you,  which  would  have  further  impaired  the  efficiency  of 
General  Taylor's  command  in  the  crisis  that  then  awaited 
him. 

My  letter  of  the  22d  of  February,  conveying  the  Presi- 
dent's views  in  regard  to  your  order  depriving  Colonel 
Harney  of  his  appropriate  command,  is  severely  arraigned 
by  you  as  offensive,  both  in  manner  and  matter. 

The  facts  in  relation  to  this  case  of  alleged  grievance  are 
now  before  the  public,  and  a  brief  allusion  to  them  will 
place  the  transaction  in  its  true  light.  Under  your  orders 
Colonel  Harney  had  brought  seven  companies  of  his  regi- 
ment, the  2d  Dragoons,  from  Monterey  to  the  Brassos,  to 
be  under  your  immediate  command ;  and  two  others,  being 
all  of  the  regiment  in  Mexico,  were  expected  to  follow 
within  a  few  days.  In  the  midst  of  his  high  hopes  and 
ardent  desires  for  active  service,  you  took  from  him  the  com- 
mand of  his  own  regiment,  devolved  it  on  one  of  his  junior 
officers,  and  ordered  him  back  to  General  Taylor's  line,  to 
look  for  what  was  not  inappropriately  denominated  "  an 
imaginary  command."  Outraged  in  his  feelings  and  injured 
in  his  rights,  he  respectfully  remonstrated ;  his  appeal  to 
your  sense  of  justice  was  unavailing.  Neither  to  this  gal- 
lant officer,  nor  to  the  President,  did  you  assign  any  suffi- 
cient or  even  plausible  reason  for  this  extraordinary  pro- 
ceeding. The  whole  army,  I  believe,  and  the  whole  coun- 
try, where  the  transaction  became  known,  entertained  but 
one  opinion  on  the  subject,  and  that  was,  that  you  had 
inflicted  an  injury  and  an  outrage  upon  a  brave  and  meri- 
torious officer.  This  interposition  you  have  made  a  grave 
matter  of  accusation  against  the  head  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, and  have  characterized  it  as  a  censure  and  a  rebuke. 
It  may  imply  both,  and  still,  being  merited,  may  leave  you 
without  a  pretense  for  complaint.  The  President,  after 
alluding  to  his  duty  to  sustain  the  rights  of  the  officers 
under  your  command,  as  well  as  your  own  rights,  informed 

you  that  he  did  not  discover  in  the  case,  as  you  had  pre- 
12 


I^S  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

sented  it,  sufficient  cause  for  such  an  order;  that,  in  his 
opinion,  Colonel  Harney  had  a  just  cause  to  complain,  and 
that  he  hoped  the  matter  had  been  reconsidered  by  you, 
and  the  Colonel  restored  to  his  appropriate  command. 
Your  own  subsequent  course  in  this  case  demonstrates  the 
unreasonableness  of  your  complaint,  and  vindicates  the 
correctness  of  the  President's  proceedings.  You  had 
really  rebuked  and  censured  your  own  conduct,  for  even 
before  you  had  received  the  President's  views,  you  had,  as 
he  hoped  you  would,  reconsidered  the  matter,  become  con- 
vinced of  your  error,  reversed  your  own  order,  and  restored 
Colonel  Harney  to  his  command  ;  thus  giving  the  strongest 
evidence  in  favor  of  the  propriety  and  correctness  of  all 
the  President  had  done  in  the  case.  I  give  you  too  much 
credit  for  steadiness  of  purpose,  to  suspect  that  you  retraced 
your  steps  from  mere  caprice,  or  for  any  other  cause  than 
a  conviction  that  you  had  fallen  into  error.  After  the 
matter  had  thus  terminated,  it  appears  unaccountable  to  me 
that  you,  who  above  all  others  should  wish  it  to  pass  into 
oblivion,  have  again  called  attention  to  it  by  making  it  an 
item  in  }'our  arraignment  of  the  War  Department. 

You  struggle  in  vain  to  vindicate  your  course  in  this 
case,  by  referring  to  your  own  acts  in  the  campaign  of 
1814.  You  then  sent  away,  as  you  allege,  against  their 
wishes,  "three  senior  field  officers,  of  as  many  regiments, 
who  were  infirm,  uninstructed,  and  inefficient,  in  favor  of 
three  juniors,  and  with  the  subsequent  approbation  of 
Major  General  Brown  and  the  head  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment." This  precedent  does  not,  in  my  judgment,  change 
the  aspect  of  the  present  case.  Colonel  Harney  was  not 
"infirm,  uninstructed,  and  inefficient;  "  you  did  not  assign, 
and  in  deference  to  the  known  opinion  of  the  army  and 
country,  you  did  not  venture  to  assign  that  reason  for 
deposing  him.  I  do  not  understand  the  force  of  }'our  logi- 
cal deduction,  that,  because  you,  on  a  former  occasion,  had 
deprived  officers  under  you  of  their  commands,  for  good 
and  sufficient  reasons,  with  subsequent  approval,  you  may 
now,  and  at  any  time,  do  the  same  thing,  without  any  rea- 
son whatever ;  and  if  the  President  interposes  to  correct 
the  procedure,  you  have  a  just  cause  to  complain  of  an 
indignity,  and  a  right  to  arraign  the  War  Department. 


SCOTT  AND  HARNEY.  I79 

As  your  animadversion  upon  the  tone  of  my  letter  is, 
probably,  not  a  blow  aimed  at  a  much  more  conspicuous 
object,  to  be  reached  through  me,  I  ought,  perhaps,  to  pass 
it  without  notice.  On  revision  of  that  letter,  I  cannot  per- 
ceive that  it  is  not  entirely  respectful  in  manner  and  lan- 
guage. The  views  of  the  President  are  therein  confidently 
expressed,  because  they  were  confidently  entertained.  It 
seems  to  be  admitted  by  you  that,  "  if  dictated  to  the 
greenest  general  of  the  recent  appointments,"  the  letter 
would  not  have  been  exceptionable.  I  was  not  aware  that 
it  was  my  duty  to  modify  and  graduate  my  style,  so  as 
to  meet,  according  to  your  fastidious  views,  the  various 
degrees  of  greenness  and  ripeness  of  the  generals,  to 
whom  I  am  required  to  convey  the  orders  of  the  President ; 
and  for  any  such  defect  in  my  official  communications,  I 
have  no  apology  to  offer. 

The  same  letter  from  Secretary  Marcy  calls  attention  to 
the  illiberal  and  unjust  manner  in  which  the  commander-in- 
chief  had  treated  General  Taylor,  whom  he  had  gotten  to 
regard,  and  very  justly,  as  a  rival  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency. Not  that  Taylor  was  a  demagogue  and  looking 
beyond  his  duty  as  a  soldier  to  his  country,  but  that  the 
people  had  already,  in  their  own  minds,  determined  to  call 
him  to  that  high  office. 

The  hostility  of  General  Scott  to  Harney  manifested 
itself  at  a  very  early  period,  and  when  the  latter  was  only 
a  Lieutenant,  stationed  with  his  company  at  Bellefontaine, 
Mo.  This  hostility  doubtless  grew  out  of  the  following 
incident : 

While  in  the  first  Florida  war.  Lieutenant  Harney  was 
assigned  to  duty  for  a  short  time  as  aide-de-camp  to  Gen- 
eral Gaines.  During  his  service  in  this  capacity,  a  warm 
attachment  was  formed  between  the  Lieutenant  and  the 
General.  Not  long  afterwards,  a  new  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army  was  to  be  appointed  in  place  of  Macomb. 
Generals  Gaines  and  Scott  were  the  two  formidable  aspi- 
rants for  the  place.  The  officers  of  the  army  freely  dis- 
cussed the  merits  of  the  two  Generals,  and  each  determined 


l80  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

upon  his  preference.  Before  the  appointment  was  made, 
Harney  and  Worth,  who  were  stopping  at  the  same  hotel 
in  New  York  City,  met  one  day  on  the  steps  of  the  hotel, 
and  entered  into  conversation  upon  the  subject  of  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  Scott  and  Gaines  for  the  office  of  comman- 
der-in-chief of  the  army.  Worth  advocated  the  claims  of 
Scott,  while  Harney  was  the  warm  friend  of  Gaines.  They 
both  grew  warm  in  the  discussion,  and  General  Worth 
turned  directly  to  Lieutenant  Harney  and  said,  "  By  g — d, 
sir,  I  hope  General  Scott  will  succeed."  Whereupon  Har- 
ney, in  great  heat,  and  with  his  face  in  close  proximity  to 
the  face  of  Worth,  said  with  great  emphasis,  "  By  g — d, 
sir,  I  hope  General  Gaines  will  succeed." 

Scott  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  army,  and 
whether  General  Worth  told  Scott  of  Lieutenant  Harney's 
greater  admiration  of  General  Gaines,  is  not  known,  but  on 
meeting:  at  Bellefontaine  Scott  issued  an  order  that  was 
unjust  to  Harney,  and  to  which  the  Lieutenant  positively 
objected.  Members  of  Scott's  staff,  however,  endeavored 
to  explain  to  Harney  that,  while  the  order  was  a  mistake, 
it  was  general  in  its  character,  and  did  not  apply  personally 
to  him,  but  to  all  the  officers. 

This  explanation  served  as  a  partial  reconciliation  of 
Lieutenant  Harney,  but  subsequent  events  seem  to  afford 
evidence  that  there  was  engendered  in  Scott  a  hostility  to 
Harney,  which  now  and  then,  in  after  years,  manifested 
itself  in  official  relations  between  these  two  distinguished 
men.  Scott  hated  Jackson,  while  Harney  was  the  pet  and 
friend  of  Old  Hickory.  Harney  affiliated  with  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  when  he  stepped  outside  of  military  duty, 
which  he  rarely  did ;  Scott  was  a  Whig,  and  was  zealous 
in  the  promotion  of  the  principles  of  that  party. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

MEXICAN  WAR  CONTINUED. 

/"TXFTER  being  court  martialed  and  restored  to  his 
(4^  proper  command,  Colonel  Harney  marched  with 
parts  of  the  first  and  second  dragoons  and  reported 
to  General  Twiggs  for  active  duty  in  the  field.  The  order 
restoring  him  to  his  command  is  dated  February  3,  1847, 
and  is  as  follows  : 

Lieutenant  H.  L.  Scott,  A.  A.  A.  General,  to  Brigadier 
General  W.  J.  Worth  : 

Head-quarters  of  the  Army, 
Brassos  Santiago,  February,  j,  i8^j. 
Sir  :  I  enclose,  herewith,  a  letter  for  Colonel  Wm.  S. 
Harney,  2d  dragoons,  and  I  am  instructed  by  the  general- 
in-chief  to  say,  that  you  will,  upon  assigning  Colonel  Har- 
ney to  the  command  of  the  dragoons,  disassociate  the 
cavalry  and  rifles,  and  say,  "  Major  Sumner  will  continue  in 
the  command  of  the  rifles  until  the  regiment  shall  be 
united  under  its  colonel.  " 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient 
servant, 

H.  L.  SCOTT, 

A.  A.  A.  General. 

The  troops  embarked  on  transports  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Grande  River,  and  proceeded  to  the  island  of  Lobos, 
where  they  joined  the  other  fleet  of  transports,  carrying 
the  main  body  of  General  Scott's  ami}',  who  had  rendez- 
voused there. 

On  their  way  the  transport  Yazoo  was  stranded  at  San 
Lizardo,  with  Colonel  Harney  and  one  troop  of  cavalry  on 
board.  It  resulted  in  the  loss  of  ten  horses,  but  no  men. 
Among  the  horses  on  board  were  those  belonging  to  Col- 

181 


MFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 


onel  ILirac}'.  One  of  them,  Buncombe,  his  favorite  horse 
for  hard  service,  was  in  the  sea  twentx-four  hours,  and 
finall}'  got  safely  ashore. 


A  MEXICAN  I  ANDAiNGO. 


On  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  March,  1847,  General  Scott 
reconnoitered  the  city  of  Vera  Cruz,   for  the  purpose   of 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  1 83 

finding  a  convenient  spot  for  landing  his  army.  Vera  Cruz 
is  the  seaport  for  the  City  of  Mexico.  It  is  situated  on  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  on  the  mainland  on  the  eastern  shore,  and 
in  latitude  20  deg.  south,  and  about  190  deg.  west  longitude 
from  Washington.  The  city  is  well  fortified,  and  protected 
by  the  castle  of  San  Juan  d'Ulloa,  a  strong  fortification 
situated  on  an  island  just  off  the  coast.  The  harbor  or 
roadstead  is  subject  to  extreme  north  winds,  and  is  a  peril- 
ous place  for  shipping  at  best.  There  is  also  on  the  south- 
western extremity  of  the  city,  at  the  mouth  of  a  small 
stream,  another  small  fortification  known  as  Fort  Santiago. 
The  Island  of  Sacrificios  lies  southwest  of  the  castle,  and 
in  the  channel  between  San  Juan  d'Ulloa  and  the  main- 
land. There  was  not  anchorage  for  such  a  large  fleet,  and 
the  troops  were  on  the  morning  of  the  9th  removed  to  the 
ships-of-war.  Near  Sacrificios  the  landing  was  effected. 
The  enemy,  not  anticipating  a  landing  at  that  point,  had 
not  made  proper  dispositions  to  prevent  it.  Two  steamers 
and  four  gunboats  covered  the  landing,  and  five  thousand 
five  hundred  men  were  embarked  in  surf-boats,  which 
safely  reached  the  shore.  They  planted  the  American 
standard  on  thf"  soil  of  the  Aztecs,  and  in  full  view  of  the 
city.  The  first  division  of  troops  landed  a  little  before 
sunset,  the  two  other  divisions  followed  after  night-fall.  It 
was  here  that  over  three  hundred  years  before,  Hernando 
Cortez  had  landed  with  his  adventurous  Spaniards.  There 
was  no  blood  spilled  and  no  casualities  to  mention  in 
effecting  this  landing.  It  was  in  itself  a  masterpiece  in  its 
design  and  in  its  execution.  Although  the  landing  was  not 
opposed  by  any  troops,  yet  the  guns  from  the  castle  and 
the  city  poured  into  the  American  troops  constant  broad- 
sides of  shot  and  shell.  The  city  was  soon  invested,  so 
complete  and  perfect  was  General  Scott's  information  of 
the  topography  that  he  had  already  given  orders  for  each 
corps  and  regiment  and  assigned  each  one  its  duty.  By 
the    1 2th   of  March  the  city  was  in  a  state  of  siege.     The 


184  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

troops  had,  with  great  labor,  transported  their  stores  and 
suppHcs  through  the  chaparral  and  sand  without  the  aid  of 
carts  and  wagons,  horses  and  mules,  which  had  not  yet 
been  landed.  There  were  occasional  skirmishes  with  the 
enemy*  while  these  dispositions  were  being  made.  The 
lines  were  five  miles  in  length.  It  was  not  until  the 
17th  that  ten  mortars  and  four  twenty-four-pound  guns 
were  landed,  and  on  the  night  of  the  i8th  the  trenches 
were  opened  and  the  engineers,  with  sappers  and  miners, 
began  the  approaches  to  the  city.  On  the  22d,  the  ten- 
inch  mortars  being  in  battery,  the  American  General  sum- 
moned the  city  to  surrender.  The  Governor,  construing 
the  summons  to  mean  the  surrender  of  the  castle,  as  well  as 
the  city,  refused.  On  the  return  of  the  flag  of  truce,  the 
mortar  battery  opened  fire  on  the  city.  Other  heavy  ord- 
nance having  arrived  on  the  24th,  the  fire  was  very  active 
on  the  25th.  The  scene  in  the  night  was  terrifically  grand, 
as  the  castle  returned  the  fire  of  the  besiegers.  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  25th,  the  Consuls  of  the  foreign  powers  residing 
at  Vera  Cruz  sent  a  memorial  to  General  Scott  for  a  flag 
of  truce  to  enable  them  to  retire  from  the  city  with  the 
women  and  children.  General  Scott  replied  that  a  truce 
could  only  be  granted  on  application  of  General  Morales, 
the  Governor,  with  a  view  to  surrender,  and  that  he  had 
previously  offered  safeguards  to  the  foreign  Consuls,  which 
they  had  refused  to  take  advantage  of 

It  was  plain  to  the  besieged  that  the  city  must  surrender 
or  be  destroyed.  Accordingly,  General  Landero,  in  com- 
mand of  the  city,  made  overtures  of  surrender.  General 
Scott  had,  in  the  meantime,  made  arrangements  to  carry 
the  city  by  assault.  Upon  receiving  the  Mexican  flag  of 
truce,  Generals  Worth  and  Pillow  and  Colonel  Totten 
were  sent  to  meet  the  Mexican  commissioners.  The  arti- 
cles of  capitulation  were  signed  on  the  night  of  the  27th, 
and  on  the  29th  the  American  flag  floated  over  both  castle 
and  city  after  a  siege  of  only  fifteen  days.     Five  thousand 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I85 

prisoners  were  paroled,  and  five  hundred  pieces  of  artillery, 
with  munitions,  arms  and  stores  were  the  fruits  of  this  vic- 
tory. General  Worth  was  placed  in  command  of  Vera 
Cruz,  and  the  commander-in-chief  prepared  to  march  upon 
the  capital. 

Pending  the  siege  the  troops  in  the  trenches  were  par- 
tially supplied  with  provisions  from  the  country  in  the  rear. 
There  were  some  French  gardeners  on  the  Madellin  River, 
some  nine  miles  south-west  of  Vera  Cruz.  A  strong  de- 
tachment of  Mexican  troops  took  position  at  a  bridge  and 
intercepted  the  supplies  which  the  people  were  willing  to 
sell  the  American  troops.  General  Harney  was,  as  we  have 
said,  in  command  of  a  portion  of  the  1st  and  2nd  Dragoons 
belonging  to  Twiggs'  division.  After  much  solicitation,  and 
after  a  delegation  of  French  citizens  had  stated  they  could 
supply  the  army  with  vegetables  so  much  needed  to  pre- 
vent scurvy,  which  had  already  begun  to  appear.  General 
Scott  ordered  Colonel  Harney  to  make  a  reconnoissance  in 
force,  and  to  ascertain  the  strength  and  position  of  the 
enemy  on  the  Madellin.  He  was  ordered  only  to  recon- 
noiter,  and  by  no  means  to  engage  them.  The  Colonel 
performed  his  duty  so  well  that  in  reconnoitering  he  pro- 
voked them  to  lire  on  him,  whereupon  he  fell  back  ;  upon 
which  the  Mexicans  sallied  out  and  began  to  press  the 
American  Dragoons,  when  Colonel  Harney  ordered  up  his 
reserves,  turned  on  them,  and  defeated  and  dislodged  them. 

The  defeat  of  the  Mexicans  at  Madellin,  and  the  con- 
sequent occupation  of  the  country,  hastened  the  fall  of 
Vera  Cruz,  for  it  cut  off  the  supplies  of  the  beleaguered 
enemy. 

We  ought  to  state  that  upon  reporting  to  General  Scott 
after  this  action,  Colonel  Harney  frankly  told  the  General: 
"  I  have  violated  your  orders,  attacked  the  enemy  and 
driven  them  to  Madellin.  "  General  Scott  said  :  "  Why  did 
you  violate  orders?"  Colonel  Harney  replied:  "General, 
I  have  done  exactly  what  you  would  have  done  under  the 


l86  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

circumstances ;  I  believe  Vera  Cruz  gets  all  her  supplies 
from  these  gardens  through  Spanish  vessels."  General 
Scott  replied :  "  Well,  Colonel,  we  will  let  it  pass." 

His  frankness  had  saved  him  from  the  consequences  of 
his  soldierly  impulsiveness.  Although  he  was  successful  in 
his  attack  upon  the  enemy,  it  was  no  excuse  for  disobeying 
orders,  for  which,  under  the  articles  of  war,  he  could  have 
been  court  martialed  and  shot. 

We  will  let  Colonel  Harney  tell  this  in  the  language  of 
his  own  report  made  at  the  time.  It  is  dated  March  26, 
1847: 

Head-quarters  Second  Regiment  Dragoons, 

Cauip  \Vas]ii)igto)t,  March  26,  18^7. 
Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that,  in  obedience 
to  the  orders  of  Major-General  Scott,  I  proceeded  yester- 
day with  Captain  Thornton's  squadron  of  Dragoons,  under 
the  immediate  command  of  IMajor  Sumner,  and  fifty  dis- 
mounted men  under  Captain  Ker,  toward  the  Madellin 
River,  it  being  reported  that  a  considerable  mounted  force 
was  in  that  direction,  and  in  our  neighborhood.  I  moved 
without  opposition  until  I  came  near  the  stone  bridge  of 
the  Morena,  which  is  skirted  by  a  dense  chaparral,  and 
which  I  determined  to  reconnoitre  before  advancing  any 
farther,  as  I  had  learned  that  it  was  fortified,  and  guarded 
by  2,000  men  and  two  pieces  of  artiller\-,  and  small  parties 
of  lancers  were  seen  near  the  thicket  on  my  approach. 
The  enemy  was  prepared,  and  when  I  came  within  sixty 
yards  of  the  bridge  he  opened  a  heavy  fire  on  my  dis- 
mounted skirmishers,  and  notwithstanding  the  utmost  pre- 
caution, one  corporal  was  killed  and  two  men  severely 
wounded.  Seeing  the  bridge  was  fortified,  and  the  enemy 
in  force  to  dispute  the  passage,  I  fell  back,  and  sent  a 
request  for  two  pieces  of  cannon,  with  the  aid  of  which  I 
felt  convinced  I  could  drive  him  from  the  bridge,  and  put 
him  to  rout.  In  the  meantime  Captain  Hardee,  who  was 
engaged  in  disembarking  his  horses,  hearing  that  I  was 
engaged  with  the  eneni)',  collected  all  the  footmen  he  had 
on  shore,  and  all  he  could  find  in  camp,  numbering  more 
than  forty,  and  came  to  my  assistance.     I  was  also  joined 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I  8/ 

by  a  company  of  the  first  Tennessee  regiment,  command- 
ed by  Captain  Cheatham,  and  part  of  four  companies  of  the 
second  Tennessee  regiment,  under  the  orders  of  Colonel 
Haskell.  Soon  after  this,  Lieutenant  Judd,  third  artillery, 
arrived  with  two  pieces  of  artillery,  and  I  immediately 
made  my  disposition  for  attack.  Captain  Ker,  with  the 
dismounted  dragoons,  was  placed  on  the  left  of  the  road 
leading  to  the  bridge,  the  volunteers  on  the  right,  while 
Captain  Hardee,  with  Lieutenant  Hill,  was  directed  to  keep 
near  the  artillery  to  support  it  if  necessary,  and  to  be  in 
readiness  to  charge  on  the  bridge.  Major  Sumner,  with  the 
mounted  men,  was  held  in  reserve.  Lieutenant  Judd  was 
directed  to  move  down  the  road  with  caution,  as  it  was 
circuitous,  and  the  bridge  not  visible  until  within  fifty  yards 
of  the  fortification.  He  did  so  with  great  judgment ;  but 
he  was  no  sooner  seen  than  the  whole  fire  of  the  Mexicans 
was  concentrated  on  his  party.  Hoping  to  divert  their  fire, 
I  ordered  the  volunteers  to  commence  firing  on  the  right, 
and  Captain  Hardee  to  extend  his  men  to  the  left  and  fire 
also ;  but  Lieutenant  Judd,  nothing  daunted,  opened  upon 
the  fortification,  and  after  six  or  eight  well  directed  rounds, 
the  heads  of  the  enemy  were  no  longer  seen  above  the 
parapet.  At  this  moment  I  ordered  a  charge  upon  the 
bridge;  and  the  volunteers,  headed  by  Colonel  Haskell  and 
Captain  Cheatham,  and  the  dragoons  under  Captain  Har- 
dee, rushed  upon  it  with  fearless  intrepidity.  The  fortifica- 
tion opposed  no  obstacle.  It  was  immediately  leaped  ;  but 
by  this  time  the  enemy  had  fallen  back,  and  reformed 
beyond  the  bridge.  I  then  ordered  the  bridge  cleared,  and 
sent  for  Major  Sumner's  command,  which  came  up  in  gal- 
lant style,  and  charged  upon  the  enemy.  On  his  approach, 
the  footmen  fled  into  the  woods,  but  the  lancers  were  met 
and  completely  routed.  Lieutenant  Lowry  and  Lieutenant 
Oakes,  with  three  men,  pursued  a  party  of  about  thirty  lan- 
cers, who  turned  off  in  a  by-road,  and  all  but  five  were 
either  sabred  or  dismounted.  iNIajor  Sumner  and  Lieuten- 
ant Sibley,  at  the  head  of  the  first  set  of  fours,  had  several 
personal  encounters  with  the  enemy,  who  were,  in  every 
instance,  either  killed  or  dismounted.  The  pursuit  was  con- 
ti-T-ied  to  the  village  of  Madellin,  six  miles  from  the  bridge, 
fro  n  which  another  party  of  lancers  were  seen  retreating, 
and  Lieutenant  Neill,  my  adjutant,  being  in  advance,  pur- 


I  88  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

sued  tliem  with  three  men.  A  party  was  sent  to  support 
him  ;  but  his  horse  being  fleeter  than  the  rest,  he  came 
first  upon  the  enemy,  and  two  of  them  closing  upon  him,  he 
received  two  severe  lance  wounds  in  the  breast  and  arm, 
in  consequence  of  which  he  fell  from  his  horse,  but  not 
until  he  had  displayed  uncommon  gallantry  in  his  defense. 
Hearing  this,  and  believing  the  enemy  in  force,  I  continued 
the  pursuit  two  miles  further  ;  but  night  coming  on,  I  was 
reluctantly  compelled  to  desist.  I  had  Lieutenant  Neill 
brought  to  the  village  of  Madellin,  where  I  halted  for  three 
hours,  to  refresh  men  and  horses,  and  I  then  returned  to 
camp  with  my  command,  which  I  reached  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  After  my  disposition  had  been  made  for 
the  attack,  I\Iajor-General  Patterson  came  up  with  Colonel 
Campbell's  regiment  of  first  Tennessee  volunteers.  He  did 
not  assume  command,  but  rendered  important  aid  by  his 
gallant  bearing  and  demeanor.  Colonel  Campbell's  regi- 
ment participated  in  the  attack  and  assault ;  and  my  thanks 
are  due  to  him.  Also  to  Colonel  Haskell  and  Captain 
Cheatham,  who  evinced  great  zeal  and  gallantry.  Colonel 
Haskell  was  the  first  to  leap  the  parapet.  Lieutenant 
Judd's  position  was  perilous,  and  he  exhibited  rare  judg- 
ment, coolness  and  intrepidity  ;  and  the  services  of  himself 
and  his  subaltern,  Lieutenent  H.  Brown,  were  of  inestima- 
ble value. 

The  steadiness  and  gallantry  displayed  in  the  presence 
of  the  enemy  by  officers  and  men,  both  of  the  regular 
and  volunteer  service,  merit  my  highest  approbation.  As 
to  my  own  regiment,  it  would  be  invidious  to  particularize 
where  all  behaved  so  nobly.  Especial  thanks  are  due  to 
my  staff.  Lieutenant  Lowry,  Lieutenant  Neill,  and  Doctor 
Barnes,  who  were  active  and  zealous  in  the  discharge  of 
their  respective  duties.  Neither  can  I  omit  to  mention  the 
effective  service  rendered  by  Brevet-Major  B.  L.  Bcall  and 
Captain  W.  J.  Hardee,  of  my  regiment.  The  former, 
though  confined  to  his  bed  by  sickness,  joined  my  com- 
mand on  the  first  intimation  of  an  engagement.  The  latter 
mounted  at  the  commencement  of  the  pursuit,  and  joined 
me  as  one  of  my  staff.  In  the  day's  action  I  lost  two  men 
killed  and  nine  wounded  ;  among  them  m\'  guide,  TJK^nias 
Young,  of  Texas,  who  discharged  his  dut\'  with  fidelity  and 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  1 89 

bravery.  It  is  not  ascertained  precisely  what  number  of 
the  enemy  was  killed  ;  but  it  is  known  that  not  less  than 
fifty  fell  in  the  attack  and  subsequent  pursuit. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Colonel  2d  Dragoo7is,  Commanding. 
Lieutenant  H.  L.  Scott,  A.  A.  A.  G. 

Camp  Washingto7i,  before  Vera  Cruz. 

The  affair  at  Madellin  was  not  mentioned  in  the 
report  of  the  commanding  General.  Colonel  Harney,  some 
months  afterwards,  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the 
Adjutant  General: 

Pueblo,  Mexico,  August  6,  1847. 

Sir  :  The  affair  at  Madellin,  in  which  the  dragoons 
under  my  command,  aided  by  two  pieces  of  artillery  under 
Lieutenant  Judd,  and  several  companies  of  volunteers, 
attacked  and  routed  a  superior  force  strongly  entrenched, 
has  never  received,  in  my  estimation,  that  consideration 
which  it  merits.  If  I  am  correctly  informed,  no  mention 
was  made  of  it  in  the  report  of  the  commanding  general 
detailing  the  operations  around  Vera  Cruz.  This  omission 
I  believe  to  have  been  accidental,  and  can  readily  excuse, 
in  the  magnitude  of  other  matters  in  which  the  general-in- 
chief  felt  a  personal  concern.  I  shall  make  no  apology, 
therefore,  for  bringing  the  subject  again  to  his  notice,  as  I 
am  convinced  he  will  be  happy  to  do  full  justice  to  the 
officers  and  men  who  fougiit  with  me  on  that  occasion. 

Events  are  estimated  by  their  relative  importance.  An 
action  which  might  be  regarded  as  a  brilliant  achievement 
in  one  age,  or  one  campaign,  would  in  another  age  and 
under  different  circumstances  be  considered  of  minor 
importance.  This  fact  is  illustrated  in  the  present  instance. 
To  those  concerned,  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  fight  at 
Madellin  should  have  occurred  almost  simultaneously  with 
the  great  victory  of  Buena  Vista,  and  the  unparalleled  cap- 
ture of  Vera  Cruz  and  San  Juan  d'UUoa.  Into  these  great 
events  it  has  been  merged,  and  has  consequently  received 
but  little  notice.  Had  it  taken  place  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war,  immediately  preceding  the  battle  of  Palo 
Alto,    for   example,  it    would  have    been   regarded   as    an 


190  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

unprecedented  achievement,  and  have  been  the  occasion  of 
unbounded  joy  and  enthusiasm ;  but,  by  its  connection 
with  these  great  victorie's,  it  has  been  overshadowed  and 
forgotten. 

1  do  not  wish  to  enlarge  on  my  own  services;  what  I  say 
is  not  intended  to  glorify  m\self,  but  to  do  justice  to  my 
regiment.  Since  the  war  commenced,  the  2d  regiment  of 
dragoons  has  been  actively  and  laboriously  engaged — some 
portion  of  the  regiment  has  been  in  every  engagement  with 
the  Mexicans,  and  the  nature  of  our  operations  not  being 
favorable  to  cavalry  service,  the  regiment  has  been  com- 
pelled, in  a  measure,  to  do  all  the  drudgery,  without  fully 
participating  in  the  glory  of  our  achievements.  The  only 
opportunities  it  has  had  for  distinction,  were  at  Resaca  and 
Madellin,  and  the  latter  the  only  place  where  our  cavalry 
has  fairly  met  the  cavalry  of  our  enemy.  My  report  shows 
the  result.  The  enemy  were  either  dismounted,  killed,  or 
dispersed,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  the  occasion  was 
such  as  to  exhibit  some  of  the  highest  qualities  of  the 
American  soldier  and  officer.  It  is  not  my  intention  in  this 
place  to  recapitulate  what  I  have  said  of  that  engagement 
in  my  report,  but  merely  to  claim,  as  an  act  of  justice,  that 
the  officers  who  distinguished  themselves  on  that  occa- 
sion should  be  rewarded.  In  this  sentiment  I  believe  the 
gcneral-in-chief  will  fully  concur,  and  I  therefore  append 
the  names  of  the  officers  most  distinguished  for  their  gal- 
lantry and  good  conduct. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Colonel    2d   dragoons. 

To  Captain  H.  L.  Scott,  A.  A.  A.  General. 

List  of   the  officers   who  distinguished  themselves    in  the 
fight  at  Madellin,  March  26th,  1847,  '^'^d  whom  I  would 
respectfully  recommend  for  brevets: 
Major  Sumner,        2d  dragoons. 
Captain  Hardee,     2d  dragoons. 
Captain  Sibley,        2d  dragoons. 
Lieutenant  Judd,    3d  artillery. 
Lieutenant  Niell,    2d  dragoons. 
Lieutenant  Oakes,  2d  dragoons. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I9I 

While  the  army  lay  at  Vera  Cruz,  Colonel  Harney  was 
ordered  to  proceed  with  a  strong  force  and  attack  a  con- 
siderable body  of  Mexicans,  which  General  Scott  had 
received  information  were  concentrating.  This  duty  was 
promptly  and  ably  performed,  but  the  Mexicans  managed 
to  elude  him  and  retreat  without  an  engagement.  The 
duties  of  dragoons  and  cavalry  are  always  arduous  in  ever>'' 
army,  more  especially  in  an  enemy's  country,  where,  upon 
their  vigilance  and  discipline  depends  the  very  existence 
of  the  main  body.  They  are  constantly  in  the  saddle,  and 
always  on  hard  duty.  Colonel  Harney  had  his  full  share  of 
this  hard  service  to  perform  during  the  siege  of  Vera  Cruz. 
In  the  meantime,  General  Taylor,  on  the  same  day  of  the 
brilliant  affair  of  Colonel  Harney  at  the  Madellin,  had  met 
and  signally  defeated  General  Santa  Anna  at  Buena  Vista. 


UK   I  ..         .rfi' 


GENERAL  TAYLOR  AT  BUENA  VISTA. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR  CONTINUED. 

\_YHE  BATTLE  of  Buena  Vista  had  defeated  but  not 
I  subdued  the  spirit  and  energy  of  General  Santa 
Anna.  Falling  back  with  his  scattered  forces  he  soon 
rallied  his  troops,  reorganized  his  army,  and  seized  the 
important  mountain  passes,  through  which  an  invading 
army  must  penetrate  in  marching  from  Vera  Cruz  upon  the 
City  of  Mexico.  General  Scott  was  not  ignorant  of  the 
activity  of  the  Mexican  General ;  but  he  was  delayed  by 
the  non-arrival  of  his  wagons  and  transportation,  without 
which  he  could  carry  neither  stores,  arms  nor  ammunition. 
Sufficient  of  them  had  arrived  by  the  8th  day  of  April  to 
justify  him  in  pushing  forward  General  Twiggs'  division,  in 
which  command  was  Colonel  Harney's  Dragoons,  on  the 
Jalapa  road.  The  other  divisions  soon  followed,  and  at  the 
end  of  three  days  they  were  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
and  the  snow-capped  peaks  of  Orizava  overlooked  them.  It 
is  on  the  ridges  of  this  chain  that  the  route  lay  to  the  City 
of  Mexico,  and  from  their  impregnable  summits  the  Ameri- 
can army  was  observed  by  General  Santa  Anna  with  fifteen 
thousand  men,  who  stood  on  the  defensive  and  were 
strongly  fortified  at  Cerro  Gordo,  which  covered  the  Jalapa 
road. 

The  force  under  General  Twiggs  was  three  miles  from 
the  Rio  del  Plan,  on  the  national  road.  That  road  ran 
between  the  river  and  a  series  of  hills  on  the  right,  which 
arc  the  border  of  the  table  lands  of  the  Cordilleras. 
Various  spurs  of  hills,  with  inaccessible  sides,  jut  out  from 
the  principal  heights,  while  the  thick  briars  and  exuberant 
vegetation  of  the  ravine,  following  the  course  of  the  river, 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 


195 


formed  an  almost  impassable  barrier  to  an  advance.  Good 
engineers  in  the  Mexican  army  had  done  their  best  to 
increase  the  difficulties  of  an  attack  on  their  chosen  posi- 
tion. Santa  Anna,  filled  with  vanity,  thought  it  an  impreg- 
nable one,  and  believing  that  the  attack  would  be  made 
along  the  line  of  the  national  road,  was  exulting  in  his 
anticipated  victory. 

On  the  1 2th  of  April,  General  Twiggs  made  a  reconnois- 
sance  of  Cerro  Gordo.  Colonel  Harney,  having  already 
demonstrated  his  efficiency  as  a  sagacious  soldier  on  many 
battle  fields,  was  vigilant  in  making  the  reconnoissance. 
His  first  effort  was  to  examine  the  character  of  the  ground 
and  determine  upon  an  attack  in  front  of  the  enemy's 
batteries ;  this  he  soon  learned  to  be  impossible,  and 
reported  that  the  trees  and  bushes  had  been  cut  down  and 
the  stumps  sharpened,  and  by  this  approach  Cerro  Gordo 
could  not  be  taken  by  the  grand  army  of  Napoleon.  But 
there  was  no  time  to  be  lost ;  an  attack  was  to  be  made  at 
once  upon  the  enemy,  and  Colonel  Harney  let  no  opportu- 
nity escape  to  secure  a  full  knowledge  of  the  approaches  to 
the  frowning  cannon  and  defiant  batteries  and  fortifications 
that  obstructed  the  pathway  of  the  American!  army  to  the 
city  of  the  Montezumas.  A  knowledge  of  the  topo- 
graphical character  of  the  country  surrounding  the  enemy's 
works,  was  the  important  thing  to  be  learned,  thereby,  if 
possible,  to  find  an  easy  pathway  to  victory.  Colonel  Har- 
ney's industry  soon  achieved  this  end  ;  he  found  an  old 
stage-driver — Jonathan  Fitzwater — who  had  been  in  Mexico 
for  many  years  ;  he  was  familiar  with  the  topographical 
character  of  the  country  between  Vera  Cruz  and  the  City 
of  Mexico.  Colonel  Harney  took  Jonathan  Fitzwater  into 
his  counsel,  and  he  suggested  a  pathway  to  victory  through 
the  iron-clad  gate  of  the  enemy,  but  told  the  Colonel  that 
he  could  not  go  with  mounted  men.  This,  however,  was 
no  drawback  to  the  gallant  officer  who  was  eager  for  a 
fight  and  victory.     He  assured.  Fitzwater  that  he  was  ready 


196  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

to  go  with  dismounted  men,  and  climb  the  rocky  steeps. 
Colonel  Harney  soon  made  a  reconnoissance  of  the  route 
suggested  by  Fitzwater,  and  decided  at  once  that  he,  by 
that  approach,  could  take  Cerro  Gordo,  and  so  reported  to 
General  Twiggs,  and  insisted  on  making  the  attack  the 
next  morning.  General  Twiggs  consented  to  Colonel  Har- 
ney's request,  but  concluded  to  wait  until  morning  to  issue 
the  necessary  orders  and  then  made  still  further  delays. 

Meantime  the  volunteers  were  constantly  arriving,  and 
General  Scott,  with  the  main  army,  was  not  far  distant. 
Colonel  Harney,  with  true  professional  pride,  was  eager  to 
make  the  attack  and  gain  the  position  with  the  regulars 
alone  rather  than  divide  the  honor  with  the  volunteers,  and 
chaffed  under  the  delay.  He  felt  that  a  victory  that  really 
belonged  to  him  by  right  of  discovery  was  to  be  divided 
between  him  and  the  whole  army. 

When  General  Scott  arrived  he  sent  out  his  engineers, 
with  a  corps  of  sappers  and  miners,  and  they  reported  as 
their  selection  the  very  route  that  Colonel  Harney  had 
before  fixed  upon.  Robert  E.  Lee  and  G.  T.  Beaure- 
gard were  the  officers  whose  intelligence  and  engineering 
skill  vindicated  Harney's  original  plan,  and  when  the  plan 
of  attack  was  detailed  to  him  by  the  general-in-chief  he 
sdw  with  gratification  that  his  own  judgment  was  endorsed 
by  men  who  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion  from  observa- 
tions independently  made. 

To  General  Pillow,  commanding  a  column  of  volunteers, 
was  assigned  the  unfortunate  duty  of  attacking  between 
the  national  road  and  the  river,  at  the  place  Harney  had 
condemned,  and  it  was  here  that  our  army  suffered  its 
greatest  loss.  The  repulse  that  Pillow  met  would  have 
been  final  were  it  not  that  the  capture  of  Cerro  Gordo  cut 
off  that  portion  of  the  Mexican  army  from  connection  with 
the  rear,  and  General  Jarero,  without  attempting  further 
resistance,  surrendered  his  entire  force. 

General  Scott,  in  the  meantime,  fully  comprehending  the 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 


197 


magnitude  of  the  engagement  and  the  value  of  a  certain 
victory,  selected  Colonel  Harney  to  lead,  with  his  dragoons, 
the  most  important  line  of  attack,  connected  with  the 
assault  and  capture  of  Cerro  Gordo.  The  result  of  the  con- 
test fully  demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  the  general-in-chief 
in  making  the  selection  he  did. 

General  Scott  ordered  a  road  to  be  cut  to  the  right  of 
the  American  army  and  to  the  left  of  Cerro  Gordo,  which 
would  enable  them  to  wind  around  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain and  ascend  the  peaks  in  rear  of  the  Mexican  batteri-.. 
so  as  to  reach  the  Jalapa  road  behind  the  Mexican  posi- 
tion. The  Mexicans,  amused  in  their  front,  did  not  dis- 
cover the  advance  by  this  route  for  three  days,  and  the 
road  was  nearly  completed  on  the  17th,  when  the  Mexicans 
opened  fire  on  the  working  parties.  General  Twiggs,  with 
his  division,  advanced,  and  Colonel  Harney,  with  the  rifle 
regiment,  the  first  artillery"  and  part  of  his  dragoons,  drove 
away  the  enemy  and  covered  the  heights  between  the  road 
and  Cerro  Gordo,  on  which,  in  the  night,  was  placed  a  bat- 
tery of  one  24-pounder  and  two  24-pound  howitzers,  under 
a  corps  of  the  engineers  and  Lieutenant  Wagner,  of  the 
ordnance,  and  carried  by  storm  the  hill  to  the  right  of 
Cerro  Gordo,  which  protected  the  working  parties. 

On  the  17th  General  Scott  published  his  General  Order 
No.  Ill,  as  follows: 

Head-quarters  of  the  Army, 
Plan  del  Rio,  April  17,  1847. 

The  enemy's  whole  line  of  intrenchments  and  batteries 
will  be  attacked  in  front,  and  at  the  same  time  turned,  early 
in  the  day  to-morrow — probably  before  ten  o'clock,  a.  m. 

The  second  (Twiggs')  division  of  regulars  is  already  ad- 
vanced within  easy  turning  distance  towards  the  enemy's 
left.  That  division  has  instructions  to  move  forward  before 
daylight  to-morrow,  and  take  up  a  position  across  the 
national  road  in  the  enemy's  rear,  so  as  to  cut  off  a  retreat 
towards  Jalapa.  It  may  be  reinforced  to-day,  if  unex- 
pectedly attacked  in  force,  by  regiments — one  or  two  taken 


ig8  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

from  Shields'  brigade  of  volunteers.  If  not,  the  two  vol- 
unteer regiments  will  march  for  that  purpose  at  daylight 
to-morrow  morning,  under  Brigadier-General  Shields,  who 
will  report  to  Brigadier-General  Twiggs,  on  getting  up  with 
him,  or  the  general-in-chief,  if  he  be  in  advance. 

The  remaining  regiment  of  that  volunteer  brigade  will 
receive  instructions  in  the  course  of  the  day. 

The  first  division  of  regulars  (Worth's)  will  follow  the 
movement  against  the  enemy's  left  at  sunrise  to-morrow 
morning. 

As  already  arranged,  Brigadier-General  Pillow's  brigade 
will  march  at  six  o'clock  to-morrow  morning  along  the 
route  he  has  carefully  reconnoitered,  and  stand  ready  as 
soon  as  he  hears  the  report  of  arms  on  our  right,  or  sooner 
if  circumstances  should  favor  him,  to  pierce  the  enemy's 
line  of  batteries  at  such  point — the  nearer  the  river  the 
better — as  he  may  select.  Once  in  the  rear  of  that  line,  he 
will  turn  to  the  right  or  left,  or  both,  and  attack  the  bat- 
teries in  reverse ;  or,  if  abandoned,  he  will  pursue  the 
enemy  with  vigor  until  further  orders. 

Wall's  field  battery  and  the  cavalry  will  be  held  in  re- 
verse on  the  national  road,  a  little  out  of  view  and  range  of 
the  enemy's  batteries.  They  will  take  up  that  position  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

The  enemy's  batteries  being  carried  or  abandoned,  all 
our  divisions  and  corps  will  pursue  with  vigor. 

This  pursuit  may  be  continued  many  miles,  until  stopped 
by  darkness  or  fortified  positions  towards  Jalapa.  Conse- 
quently, the  body  of  the  army  will  not  return  to  this  en- 
campment, but  be  followed  to-morrow  afternoon,  or  early 
the  next  morning,  by  the  baggage  trains  of  the  several 
corps.  For  this  purpose,  the  feebler  officers  and  men  of 
each  corps  will  be  left  to  guard  its  camp  and  effects,  and  to 
load  up  the  latter  in  the  wagons  of  the  corps.  A  com- 
mander of  the  present  encampment  will  be  designated  in 
the  course  of  this  day. 

As  soon  as  it  shall  be  known  that  the  enemy's  works 
have  been  carried,  or  that  the  general  pursuit  has  been 
commenced,  one  wagon  for  each  regiment  and  one  for  the 
cavalry  will  follow  the  movements,  to  receive,  under  the 
directions  of  medical  officers,  the  wounded   and  disabled, 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  I  99 

who  will  be  brought  back  to  this  place  for  treatment  in  gen- 
eral hospital. 

The  surgeon-general  will  organize  this  important  service 
and  designate  that  hospital,  as  well  as  the  medical  officers 
to  be  left  at  it. 

Every  man  who  marches  out  to  attack  or  pursue  the 
enemy,  will  take  the  usual  allowance  of  ammunition,  and 
subsistence  for  at  least  two  days. 

By  command  of  Major-General  Scott, 

H.  L.  SCOTT,  A.  A.  A.  General. 

At  early  dawn,  General  Twiggs  was  in  motion,  the  artil- 
lery, masked  by  the  brush  from  the  batteries  on  the  heights, 
carried  the  day  before,  opening  fire  on  the  Mexican  posi- 
tion. The  hills  and  mountains  reverberated  with  the  bel-. 
lowing  of  cannon.  The  enemy  answered  in  the  same  thun- 
der tones,  and  as  General  Shields,  with  his  division,  pressed 
forward  to  take  possession  of  the  Jalapa  road,  in  the  rear 
of  Cerro  Gordo,  Twiggs  moved  forward  to  his  support, 
but  from  Cerro  Gordo  there  was  opened  a  plunging  fire  on 
Twiggs'  division.  The  order  was  given  to  storm  the  bat- 
teries and  works  of  Cerro  Gordo.  Colonel  Harney  was 
charged  with  the  execution  of  this  perilous  and  important 
duty.  He  led  the  regulars  forward,  covered  by  the  Ameri- 
can batteries,  till  he  reached  the  space  between  them  and 
Cerro  Gordo,  where  they  encountered  the  enemy's  fire. 
They  climbed  the  rocky,  steep  ascent  under  a  plunging  fire 
in  their  front  and  a  rolling  fire  in  flank.  Colonel  Harney, 
full  fifty  yards  in  advance  of  his  column,  waved  his  sword 
and  shouted  like  the  very  God  of  War,  and  excited  the 
emulation  of  his  troops  to  follow.  The  missiles  of  death 
were  decimating  the  ranks,  but  they  did  not  falter.  As 
soon. as  a  comrade  fell  they  closed  up  with  the  steadiness 
and  accuracy  of  a  holiday  parade.  They  gained  the  hill 
and  gave  one  loud  shout,  for  they  carried  the  works,  and 
found  the  Mexican  commander.  General  Vasquez,  a  corpse 
in  the  fortress  he  so  obstinately  defended.     The  American 


200  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

flag  was  raised  over  Cerro  Gordo,  and  the  Mexican  colors 
pulled  down. 

General  Shields'  division,  in  the  meantime,  moved  upon 
the  Jalapa  road,  storming  a  fort  in  their  front,  which  was 
carried  by  their  valor,  but  their  brave  General  was  shot 
through  the  lungs.  The  road  was  taken,  and  General 
Santa  Anna,  with  eight  thousand  men,  were  fugitives,  while 
General  La  Vega  and  three  other  general  officers,  with 
three  thousand  men,  were  prisoners. 

The  Americans  were  victorious  at  every  point,  except 
with  Pillow's  division,  which,  recoiling  under  an  enfilading 
fire,  was  held  at  bay  till  the  storming  of  Cerro  Gordo  and 
the  threatened  capture  of  the  Jalapa  road  put  Santa  Anna 
to  flight.  The  fugitive  army  was  pursued  with  great 
slaughter  beyond  Jalapa. 

When  the  contest  was  ended  and  the  flag  of  the  Union 
waved  over  the  demolished  fortifications  of  the  vanquished 
Mexicans,  the  general-in-chief,  who  was  an  eye-witness 
to  the  charge  of  Colonel  Harney,  with  due  regard  for  the 
valor  and  duty  done  by  all  the  officers  and  soldiers,  felt 
that  there  was  one  chieftain,  "a  soldier  of  the  legion,"  his 
chosen  champion,  who  had  done  more  than  his  duty,  and, 
overflowing  with  joy,  he  rushed  to  Colonel  Harney,  and 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  embraced  him  with  affection  as  would 
an  illustrious  sire  embrace  a  victorious  son  at  the  Olympic 
games. 

This  great  struggle,  which  made  Colonel  Harney  illus- 
trious as  a  soldier,  deserves  more  than  a  passing  notice,  for 
it  is  not  the  soldier  that  makes  a  battle-field  historic,  but  it 
is  the  character  of  the  fortifications  or  the  battle-field,  the 
position  it  occupies,  the  results  for  weal  or  woe  which 
depend  upon  its  capture,  or  its  power  to  repel  an  invading 
army  or  navy  that  makes  officers  and  soldiers  illustrious  in 
victory  or  defeat.  And  in  every  armed  contest  there  are 
some  battles  more  conspicuous  than  others ;  battles  that 
give  distinction  to  the  contest,  and  make  illustrious  surviv- 


COLONEL  HARNEY  AT  CERRO  GORDO. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 


203 


ing  heroes;  such  an  one  is  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  and  as 
such  the  historians  of  the  two  nations  are  permitted  to 
speak  in  reference  to  the  immediate  contest. 

In  his  history  of  the  Mexican  war,  Edward  D.  Mansfield 
describes  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo  as  follows  (pages  191 
to  194) : 

All  is  ready.  The  night-watch  is  past.  Twiggs'  divi- 
sion, which  has  rested  on  its  arms,' is  rousing  itself  at  the 
first  light.  The  gallant  artillerymen  and  engineers  on  the 
hill  cut  away  the  light  brush  in  front  of  their  guns,  and  now 
the  heavy  cannon  begin  their  fire  on  the  hill  batteries 
Their  thunder  tones  are  echoed  from  the  mountain  sides, 
and  returned  from  the  pieces  of  the  enemy.  The  division 
of  Twiggs  is  marching.  The  volunteers  of  Shields  are  hur- 
rying on  to  seize  the  Jalapa  road  in  rear  of  Santa  Anna. 
Cerro  Gordo  now  opens  its  plunging  fire  on  Twiggs,  and 
the  issue  has  come.  Cerro  Gordo  must  be  stormed.  The 
storm  is  led  by  the  gallant  Harney.  They  fight  under  the 
eye  of  Scott.  Here  march  the  rifles,  the  ist  artillery,  the 
7th  infantry ;  and  near  them,  and  with  them  storming  the 
heights,  are  the  2d  and  the  3d  infantry,  and  the  4th  artil- 
lery. These  are  the  regulars  of  Twiggs,  and  here  they 
march  up  the  rocky  ascent,  .>o  steep  that  they  must  climb 
as  they  go,  and  with  no  covering  but  the  very  steepness  of 
the  hill.  They  receive  a  plunging  fire  in  front  and  a  roll- 
ing fire  on  the  flanks — but  on  they  go.  On — on,  Harney 
leads  his  men.  The  front  rank  melts  away  before  the  shot ; 
but  they  stop  not  till  the  hill  is  gained,  and  then  a  long  and 
loud  shout  echoes  from  the  mountain  sides — Cerro  Gordo 
is  gained  !  Vasquez,  the  Mexican  General,  is  killed  in  the 
fortress.  Now  the  flags  of  the  ist  artillery  and  7th  infantry 
are  planted  on  the  batteries,  and  now  sergeant  Henry  hauls 
down  the  national  standard  of  Mexico.  The  Anglo-Amer- 
ican again  unfurls  the  flag  of  his  country,  and  again  renews 
the  victories  of  Cortez.  But  where  are  the  volunteers? 
Yet  further  to  the  right,  and  hastening  to  the  Jalapa  road, 
they  storm  a  fort  in  front — the  heroic  Shields  is  shot 
through  the  lungs — but  the  fort  is  taken — the  road  is 
gained — and  the  flying  army  of  Santa  Anna  is  pursued  in 
all  directions. 


204  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

On  the  river  batteries  in  front,  Pillow's  attack  is  not 
successful.  The  batteries  enfilade  our  men,  and  after 
bravely  fighting,  they  are  drawn  back  ;  but  their  effort  is 
not  lost.  The  corps  of  General  La  Vega  is  kept  employed 
till  Cerro  Gordo  has  fallen.  Then  he  surrenders,  with 
three  thousand  men  prisoners  of  war.  Santa  Anna,  with 
Almonte,  Canalizo,  and  eight  thousand  have  escaped,  leav- 
ing carriages  and  baggage  behind,  and  are  now  on  the  road 
to  Jalapa.  The  sun  is -at  noon,  and  the  battle  is  ended; 
but  the  pursuit  continues.  The  reserve  division  of  Worth 
comes  up,  passes  Twiggs,  and  hurries  rapidly  on  after  the 
confused  and  flj'ing  INIexicans ;  nor  does  he  stop  till  Jalapa 
appears  in  sight! 

On  the  19th  of  April,  from  Plan  del  Rio,  Scott  an- 
nounces to  the  War  Department  that  he  is  embarrassed 
with  the  results  of  victory !  Three  thousand  prisoners, 
forty-three  pieces  of  bronze  artillery  manufactured  at  Se- 
ville, five  thousand  stand  of  arms,  five  generals,  with  the 
munitions  and  materials  of  an  army,  captured  in  a  single 
battle,  are  the  fruits  of  victory,  and  demand  the  earnest 
care  of  the  conquering  general !  The  men  must  be  pa- 
roled;  the  small-arms  must  be  destroyed;  we  have  not  men 
to  take  care  of  them. 

Such  was  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo.  In  the  skill  with 
which  it  was  planned,  in  the  formidable  defences  to  be  sur- 
mounted, in  the  heroism  of  the  attack,  and  in  the  magni- 
tude of  results,  with  which  of  American  battles  will  it  not 
compare?  There  were  almost  impassable  obstacles,  sur- 
mounted by  skill ;  there  were  almost  impregnable  batteries, 
stormed  by  valor;  there  were  thousands  of  prisoners  cap- 
tured, and  an  army  destroyed ;  there  was  a  road  to  the 
capital  laid  open,  and  towns  and  cities  taken  in  the  long 
vista  of  a  victorious  march !  The  Mexican  empire  lies 
under  the  feet  of  the  conqueror,  and  again  is  the  Aztec 
compelled  to  witness  the  triumphs  of  power,  and  utter  b\- 
the  ruins  of  the  past,  the  mournings  of  the  present  ! 

Look  around  you  upon  the  battle-field,  now  that  the  dark 
chariot  of  war  has  driven  by !  Hear  the  description  of  one 
who  has  been  to  look  upon  the  dead. 

"  A  dragoon  we  encountered  on  the  way  kindly  offered 
to  be  our  guide,  and  from  him  we  learned  the  positions  of 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  20$ 

the  different  armies,  their  divisions  and  subdivisions.  As 
winding  around  the  hills  by  the  national  road,  the  enemy's 
intrenchments,  their  barricaded  heights,  strong  forts,  and 
well-defended  passes  came  in  view,  we  halted,  and  gazed 
for  several  moments  in  mute  amazement.  No  one,  from 
reading  the  newspaper  accounts  or  the  reports  of  the  gen- 
erals, can  form  a  proper  idea  of  the  advantages  possessed 
by  the  enemy  in  his  chosen  position.  The  battle,  I  knew 
it  had  been  fought  and  won  by  our  troops  ;  yet  it  seemed, 
in  its  bare,  still  reality,  a  dream.  I  could  not  shake  off  this 
feeling  as  I  rode  along  the  enemy's  lines  of  intrenchments, 
entered  his  dismantled  forts  and  magazines,  and  looked 
from  his  chosen  heights  upon  the  paths  up  which  our  troops 
rushed  into  the  jaws  of  death.   *    *   * 

"  Passing  down  the  ravine  where  the  National  Guard  had 
three  times  attempted  to  dislodge  the  mounted  riflemen, 
who,  supported  by  the  howitzer  battery,  literalh'  rained 
death  among  their  ranks,  I  was  obliged  to  turn  back  and 
retrace  my  steps.  The  gorge  was  choked  up  with  the 
mangled  bodies  of  the  flower  of  the  Mexican  army.  The 
wolf-dog  and  the  buzzard  howled  and  screamed  as  I  rode 
by,  and  the  stench  was  too  sickening  to  be  endured.  Re- 
turning to  the  national  road,  we  passed  a  large  number  of 
cannon  taken  by  our  troops,  and  saw  piles  of  muskets 
charred  with  fire  in  heaps,  where  they  had  been  heaped  and 
burned.  ***** 

"  All  along  the  road  were  the  bodies  of  IMexican  lancers 
and  their  horses,  cut  down  by  Colonel  Harney's  dragoons, 
when  these  fire-eaters  chased  Santa  Anna  and  his  retreating 
troops  into  and  beyond  Jalapa.  Almost  every  man's  skull 
was  literally  split  open  with  the  sabres  of  our  horsemen, 
and  they  lay  stretched  upon  the  ground  in  ghastly  groups." 

From  this  sad  scenery  of  war,  as  exhibited  in  the  relics 
of  a  battle-field,  we  must  hasten  on  with  the  gallant  Gen- 
eral, who  renewed  with  yet  deeper  verdure  the  laurels  of 
Niagara  on  the  summits  of  Cerro  Gordo.  Scott  was  no 
distant  spectator  of  the  combat.  He  had  called  others  to 
the  field,  and  he  shared  its  dangers  himself.  Having  pre- 
pared all  things  for  the  storm  of  the  tower,  (called  by  the 
INIexicans  the  Telegraph,)  he  took  post  at  the  point  Colonel 
Harney  charged,  and  under  the  heavy  fire  of  the  enemy's 


206  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

artiller}%  There  he  witnessed  the  gallant  charge,  and  there 
he  encouraged  the  troops.  It  was  then  that  he  thus 
addressed  Colonel  Harney,  (between  whom  and  himself 
there  had  been  some  coolness :)  "  Colonel  Harney,  I  can- 
not now  adequately  express  my  admiration  of  your  gallant 
achievement,  but  at  the  proper  time  I  shall  take  great 
pleasure  in  thanking  you  in  proper  terms."  Harney,  with 
the  modesty  of  true  valor,  claimed  the  praise  as  due  to  his 
officers  and  men. 

The  storming  of  Cerro  Gordo  was  one  of  the  most  brill- 
iant and  desperate  of  that  long  line  of  feats  of  arms 
which  belong  to  the  history  of  the  Mexican  war.  Of  Col- 
onel Harney's  part  in  it,  the  following  brief  extract  is  from 
Brooks'  "  Histor}'  of  the  Mexican  War:  " 

"  Throughout  the  night  there  were  8,000  Mexicans  lying 
upon  and  around  the  various  heights,  protected-  by  breast- 
works and  fortifications,  and  further  secured  from  direct 
assault  by  deep  ravines  and  almost  precipitous  rocks,  up 
whose  steep  sides  they  imagined  a  man  would  scarce!}'  dare 
to  climb.  In  addition  to  the  force  thus  formidably  posted, 
there  was  a  reserve  of  6,000  men,  encamped  upon  the  plain 
in  the  rear  of  Cerro  Gordo,  and  close  to  the  Jalapa  road. 

"  Meanwhile  Harney  was  organizing  his  storming  party. 
This  consisted  of  the  Fourth  Infantry  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Plympton,  the  rifles  under  Major  Loring,  four  com- 
panies of  the  First  Artillery  under  Colonel  Child,  and 
six  companies  of  the  Third  Infantry  under  Captain  Alex- 
ander. All  of  these,  composing  the  forlorn  hope,  were 
regulars,  picked  men,  daring  and  resolute.  Manx'  of  them 
were  veterans  who  had  passed  not  unscathed  through  the 
desperate  battles  of  Palo  Alto  and  the  Palm  Ravine,  and 
the  still  more  deadly  storm  of  Monterey.  Now  they  were 
about  to  wrestle  with  a  danger  perhaps  more  imminent 
than  any  they  had  hitherto  encountered. 

"  Onward  they  rushed,  impelled  b}-  the  double  conscious- 
ness that  the  eyes  of  the  gcneral-in-chief  were  upon  them, 
<'!nd  of  the  terrible  consequences  that  would  follow  a  disas- 
trous issue.  Harney  led  the  way,  conspicuous  above  all 
others  by  his  full  military  uniform  and  his  commanding  stat- 
ure.   Waving  his  sword  and  calling  on  his  men  to  follow,  he 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  20/ 

rapidly  ascended  in  full  view  of  the  enemy,  while  his  cheer- 
ing voice  infused  into  the  breasts  of  his  command  the  same 
energy  and  dauntless  enthusiasm  which  animated  his  own. 
It  was  a  race  for  glorious  renown  wherein  each  strove  to 
be  foremost.  The  front  ranks  fell,  but  the  survivors  still 
pressed  on,  and  still  above  the  thunder  of  the  war  rose 
high,  distinct  and  clear  the  voice  of  their   intrepid  leader." 

The  key  to  the  whole  position  was  ours,  captured  under 
the  eye  of  the  general-in-chief,  by  an  assault  that  stands 
out  as  one  of  the  most  fiery  and  desperate  onsets  of  modern 
war. 

The  historian  of  Mexico  thus  speaks  of  this  great  battle. 
The  work  is  entitled,  "  The  Other  Side,  or  notes  for  the  his- 
tory of  the  war  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States," 
translated  from  the  Spanish  by  Albert  C.  Ramsey : 

On  the  same  day,  the  17th,  the  brigade  of  General 
Arteaga  arrived  at  Jalapa,  composed  of  the  active  battal- 
ions and  the  National  Guard  of  Puebla ;  and  they  had 
scarcely  retired  to  their  quarters  before  an  order  was  receiv- 
ed, from  General  Santa  Anna,  to  take  up  their  march  im- 
mediately for  Cerro  Gordo.  Without  taking  any  rest  after 
their  journey,  those  wretched  soldiers  proceeded;  and  most 
of  them  reached  Dos  Rios  that  night,  leaving  various 
parties  behind,  who  could  not  endure  the  fatigue.  On  the 
following  day,  at  a  very  critical  moment  indeed,  the  united 
brigade  arrived  at  Cerro  Gordo. 

Although  General  Santa  Anna  apparently  fixed  his  whole 
attention  on  the  position  of  the  right,  where  he  naturally 
expected  the  decisive  attack,  instructed  by  what  had  hap- 
pened, he  sent  two  12-pounders  and  one  16,  that  night  up 
the  hill ;  but  the  last  only  reached  half  way  up,  on  the  left 
side.  He  also  ordered  the  chiefs  of  engineers,  Robles  and 
Cano,  to  construct  the  most  necessary  fortifications  on  that 
eminence ;  and  on  the  following  day,  before  dawn,  he  him- 
self placed  a  battery  on  the  side  of  the  road,  almost  in  front 
of  head-quarters,  at  the  aperture  of  a  bushy  barranca.  The 
Americans,  in  the  course  of  the  night,  also  established  a 
battery  in  the  hill  of  the  Atalaya;  and  their  preparations 
for  an  attack  on  the  following  day,  were  interrupted  only 


208  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

by  a  few  cannon  shots,  which  General  Vasquez,  Comman- 
dante  of  the  Telegrafo,  ordered  to  be  fired  at  them. 

At  dawn  on  the  i8th,  the  roar  of  the  enemy's  artillery 
resounded  through  the  camps,  as  a  solemn  announcement 
of  a  battle. 

On  the  hill,  where  the  brave  insurgents  had  in  former 
days  shed  their  blood  for  independence,  now  waved  our 
flag ;  and  under  its  shadow,  from  that  elevation,  was  seen  a 
line  of  men,  who  were  to  serve  as  a  wall  against  the  in- 
vader. Among  the  files,  the  different  and  distinctive  ranks 
of  the  army,  from  the  common  soldier  to  the  general-in- 
chief,  then  invested  with  the  supreme  dignity  of  the  nation, 
appeared  at  that  time  in  all  the  prestige  and  with  all  the 
splendor  which  the  illusions  of  patriotism  conceded  to 
them. 

The  enemy,  using  the  battery  of  Atalaya,  opened  from 
thence  for  some  hours,  their  fire  upon  the  Telegrafo,  from 
which  our  own  replied.  General  Santa  Anna  then  employ- 
ed himself  in  completing  the  battery  by  the  roadside  ;  and 
the  engineers,  Robles  and  Cano,  under  the  enemy's  fire, 
erected  temporary  works  on  the  declivity  of  the  Telegrafo, 
on  the  very  spot  where  the  corps  who  defended  the  center 
of  the  position,  the  evening  before,  had  formed.  Above 
the  positions  of  the  center  and  the  right  of  our  line,  were 
now  the  same  forces  which  had  previously  garrisoned 
them;  upon  the  hill  the  1st  and  2d  Light  were  sent,  which 
had  gone  down  early  in  the  morning,  to  take  their  rations  ; 
and  the  6th  infantry  returned  to  cover  the  right.  The  4th 
of  the  line  remained  on  the  spot  where  they  had  fought  so 
bravely  on  the  17th.  The  cavalry,  which  had  been  ordered 
down  from  Corral  Falso  in  the  night,  formed  on  the  road, 
resting  their  right  opposite  the  battery  just  erected,  and 
were  supported  by  the  nth  infantry.  The  3d  and  4th  light 
battalions  remained  also  formed  on  the  road,  ready  to 
march  to  any  point  that  might  be  designated. 

Such  was  the  disposition  of  our  forces,  before  sunrise, 
while  the  cannonade  was  becoming  more  and  more  active 
between  the  two  hills,  until  the  roar  was  repeated  every 
instant.  The  enemy,  without  cessation,  poured  down 
grenades,  rockets,  and  all  other  kinds  of  projectiles,  which 
^11  upon  the  hill,  upon  the  road  and    even  far  beyond  our 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  2O9 

camp.  Their  columns,  in  the  meantime,  marched  bcx'ond 
the  Atalaya,  by  the  crags  in  front  of  our  left ;  and  about 
seven  in  the  morning,  one  of  them,  under  the  command  of 
General  Twiggs,  commenced  the  attack  upon  Telegrafo. 

General  Santa  Anna,  as  soon  as  he  had  established  the 
battery  on  the  left,  proceeded  to  the  positions  on  the  right, 
influenced  perhaps  by  his  first  idea.  But  stopping  after  he 
had  passed  the  battery  of  the  center,  and  observing  from 
that  spot,  the  activity  with  which  the  cannonade  was  sus- 
tained on  our  part,  sent  orders  to  General  Vasquez,  not  to 
expend  his  park,  and  to  shelter  the  troops  from  the  enemj-'s 
fire.  Then  returning  by  the  road,  on  arriving  at  the  foot 
of  the  Telegrafo,  the  fire  of  musketry  opened,  and  he  im- 
mediately sent  up  the  3d  and  4th  Light  battalions  to  aid 
the  troops  in  defending  that  point. 

The  Americans  charged  with  firmness,  deploying  as  skir- 
mishers, covering  themselves  among  the  bushes  and  briers 
that  were  on  the  ground  upon  the  lines,  scarcely  marked 
out,  which  it  had  been  intended  to  construct  that  morning, 
being  supported  by  the  3d  of  the  line,  the  2d  Light,  and 
part  of  the  4th.  They  made  equal  exertions  against  the 
left  of  the  Telegrafo,  defended  by  the  4th  of  the  line,  and 
against  the  right,  where  the  6th  infantry  was  posted,  to 
reinforce  them,  as  on  the  previous  evening.  The  artillery 
had  ceased  to  play  on  both  sides,  on  account  of  the  prox- 
imity of  the  combatants.  The  fire  of  the  musketry  was  as 
active  as  the  excitement  of  the  contest.  Death,  flapping 
her  wings  over  that  bloody  field,  set  on  fire  in  some  places 
by  the  projectiles  of  the  enemy,  and  which  was  mixed  in  a 
horrible  manner  with  the  thick  smoke  that  enveloped  thou- 
sands of  men,  crimsoned  with  the  contest.  Our  soldiers 
fell  in  heaps  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion,  and  the  enemy 
falling  also,  were  instantly  replaced  by  others,  who  seemed 
to  reproduce  them.  There  fell  the  worthy  Colonel  Pala- 
cios,  commander  of  the  artillery  of  the  field,  wounded  by 
the  enemy's  balls ;  there  a  warrior's  fame  crowned  the 
career  of  General  Vasquez,  in  the  fulness  of  his  energies 
with  a  glorious  death,  amidst  the  tumult  of  battle,  and  there 
hundreds  of  brave  men  shed  their  blood  in  the  most  holy 
cause.  This  commander  should  have  been  succeeded  by 
his  second,  General  Uraga,  but  he  was  at  the  head  of  his 


210  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

battalion,  the  4th  of  the  line,  on  the  left  declivity  of  the 
Telegrafo ;  and  having  not  a  moment  to  lose,  General 
Baneneli  took  the  command,  whose  corps,  the  3d  Light, 
had  remained  in  reserve,  sheltered  from  the  fire  by  the 
very  summit  of  the  hill.  The  activity  of  the  engagement 
redoubling  more  and  more,  destro\-ed  new  victims.  The 
2d  Light  and  the  3d  and  4th  of  the  line,  had  lost  almost 
their  entire  force,  and  even  the  last  the  greater  part  of  its 
officers.  The  enemy,  pressing  upon  our  troops  with 
superior  numbers,  successively  gained  possession  of  the 
lower  works  of  the  position,  and  without  losing  an  in- 
stant, rapidly  ascended  to  assault  the  last  crest  of  the 
hill. 

Some  of  our  soldiers  now  began  to  leave  their  ranks,  and 
to  descend  the  opposite  side,  attempting  to  mingle  with 
the  wounded,  who  were  retiring,  but  General  Santa  Anna 
observing  it  ordered  some  of  his  adjutants  to  prevent  this 
disorder,  and  they  either  on  compulsion,  or  by  the  stimulus 
of  enthusiasm,  succeeded  in  persuading  the  fugitives  to 
return. 

In  the  meantime.  General  Baneneli  appealed  to  the  last 
resource,  and  ordered  his  men  to  charge  bayonets.  The\-, 
eager  to  join  in  an  action  which  they  had  only  heard,  im- 
mediately hastened  this  movement  in  full  force,  to  come 
up  to  where  they  were  directed;  but,  surprised  at  finding 
themselves  hand  to  hand  with  an  enemy  so  superior  in 
numbers,  and  surrounded  on  all  sides,  were  panic-struck  in 
an  instant,  fell  into  disorder,  and  their  commander  in  v'ain 
endeavored  to  keep  them  in  their  ranks.  Being  himself 
involved  in  the  crowd  with  the  chiefs  of  engineers  and 
other  officers,  who  endeavored,  sword  in  hand,  to  keep 
back  the  men,  they  were  actually  rolled  together  down  the 
opposite  declivity,  borne  along  by  the  multitude,  which 
poured  onward  like  a  torrent  from  the  height. 

On  the  summit  of  the  hill  now  was  seen,  in  the  midst  of 
a  column  of  dense  smoke,  a  multitude  of  Americans,  stand- 
ing amidst  the  flashing  light  of  their  fires,  which  were  di- 
rected against  the  enormous  mass  of  men  precipitating 
themselves  down  the  steep  declivity,  covered,  as  it  were, 
witii  a  white  robe  from  the  color  of  their  dress.  That 
shocking  spectacle  was  like  the  violent  eruption  of  a  vol- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  211 

cano,  throwing  out  flames  and  cinders  from  its  bosom,  and 
spreading  them  over  all  its  surface. 

Among  the  fire  and  smoke,  and  above  the  mass  of  blue 
formed  b\'  the  Americans  behind  the  summit  of  the  Tel- 
egrafo,  still  floated  our  deserted  flag.  But  the  banner  of 
the  stars  was  soon  raised  ^by  the  enemy  upon  the  same  staff, 
and  for  an  instant  both  became  entangled  and  confounded 
together,  our  own  at  length  falling  to  the  ground,  amidst 
the  shouts  and  roar  of  the  victors'  guns,  and  the  mournful 
cries  and  confused  voices  of  the  vanquished. 

It  was  now  three-quarters  past  ten  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing. The  enemy  had  appeared  on  the  right  of  our 
line  during  the  attack  on  the  Telegrafo ;  and  advancing  in 
column  upon  our  position  of  the  center,  endeavored  to 
take  all  our  entrenchments  by  assault.  Captain  Godinez,  of 
the  navy,  commanding  the  artillery,  had  concerted  with  the 
respective  commanders  of  the  three  positions,  to  allow  the 
enemy  to  advance  upon  any  of  them  without  firing,  until 
they  should  approach  within  a  short  distance,  taking  the 
precaution  to  have  the  cannon  loaded  with  grape  shot. 
The  American  column,  composed  of  volunteers,  under  the 
command  of  General  Pillow,  approached  nearer  and  nearer 
to  our  lines  without  receiving  a  single  shot ;  but,  as  soon  as 
they  reached  a  convenient  place,  a  close  discharge  of  our 
pieces,  which  raked  their  ranks,  accompanied  with  a  vigor- 
ous volley  of  small  arms  from  the  three  positions,  made  a 
horrible  slaughter  among  the  enemy,  threw  them  into  dis- 
order, and  obliged  them  to  make  a  precipitate  retreat. 

Before  they  could  reorganize,  and  when  our  soldiers  had 
not  suffered  the  slightest  loss,  the  Telegrafo  had  yielded  ; 
and  the  Americans  who  had  possession  of  it,  descending  by 
the  right  declivity,  upon  the  battery  on  the  road,  which  our 
forces  had  not  begun  to  use,  entirely  cut  off  those  posi- 
tions, now  surrounded  on  all  sides,  and  commanded  b\'  the 
hill  from  which  the  enemy  directed  their  fire.  General 
Jarero  no  longer  attempted  any  resistance,  but  surren- 
dered, with  his  force. 

When  the  Telegrafo  was  lost,  the  6th  infantr\'  had 
retreated  to  the  position  on  the  right,  where  they  capitulated 
with  the  other  corps.  The  grenadier  battalion,  which  had 
been  drawn  out  from  the  battery  of  the   center  to  the  foot 


212  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  the  hill,  chiefly  dispersed,  in  spite  of  the  exertions  made 
to  collect  it. 

The  brigade  of  General  Arteaga,  that  had  arrived  in  the 
mids<-  of  the  conflict,  being  infected  by  the  disorder  of  the 
other  forces,  fell  into  confusion,  opposite  head-quarters, 
without  having  come  into  action.  The  iith  infantry,  in 
obedience  to  different  orders  from  the  Commander-in-chief, 
made  repeated  marches  and  countermarches  for  that  same 
point ;  while  the  scattered  remains  of  the  2d,  3d,  and  4th 
light  battalions,  and  3d  and  4th  of  the  line,  there  likewise 
became  disordered  ;  and  the  entire  mass  of  men,  panic- 
struck,  without  morale,  without  discipline,  moved  about  in 
that  small  piece  of  road,  in  the  most  frightful  state  of  con- 
fusion. 

An  enthusiastic  officer  harangued  the  troops  at  the  pitch 
of  his  voice,  assuring  them  that  they  had  yet  lost  nothing, 
wishing  to  reanimate  the  spirit  now  dead  in  all  that  unfor- 
tunate crowd.  General  Beneneli,  rushing  in  with  his  horse, 
and  full  of  wrath,  poured  forth  a  thousand  horrible  impre- 
cations upon  his  soldiers,  and  with  the  butt  of  his  pistol 
threatened  particularly  one  of  his  captains.  The  General- 
in-chief  vented  his  rage  upon  the  officers  who  had  lost 
their  positions  ;  and  tiie  agitation  of  the  multitude,  and  the 
difficulties  of  the  ground,  with  the  general  dangers  and 
desperation,  rendered  the  scene  indescribable. 

In  the  meantime,  the  enemy's  column,  commanded  by 
General  Worth,  passing  the  barrancas  and  crags  on  our 
left,  which  had  been  deemed  inaccessible,  approached  the 
battery  that  had  been  thrown  up  that  day,  the  only  remain- 
ing one  in  our  possession.  The  General-in-chief  ordered 
General  Canalizo  to  charge  with  the  cavalry ;  but  the  woods 
absolutely  prevented  the  execution  of  the  movement.  The 
column  advanced,  in  spite  of  the  fire  of  the  cannon,  in  a 
direction  for  the  road,  to  the  left  of  our  battery,  to  cut  off 
our  retreat.  When,  however,  the\^  had  approached  near 
enough,  more  than  two  hundred  skirmishers  were  sent  for- 
ward, whose  balls,  as  if  with  a  breath  of  wind,  fast  cleared 
away  the  men  at  our  guns,  which  were  supplied  by  the 
artillery  and  a  party  of  cuirassiers,  who  had  been  ordered 
to  dismount  to  reinforce  the  battery.  The  first  adjutant, 
Velasco,  chief  of  the   cuirassiers,  had  the  glory  of  falling 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 


213 


at  the  foot  of  it.  The  skirmishers  advanced  to  the  front  of 
the  battery,  so  that  the  head  of  the  cokinin  was  very  near 
the  road  ;  when  our  cavalrj',  seeing  tliat  they  were  about 
to  be  cut  off,  retreated  rapidly  by  the  Jalapa  road.  The 
last  effort  was  then  made  by  Robles,  and  the  brave  artillery 
ofiicers,  Malagon,  Arguelles,  and  Olzinger,  who,  surrounded 
on  all  sides,  turned  their  pieces  towards  the  left,  directing 
them  against  the  head  of  the  column,  a  few  moments 
before  the  skirmishers,  who  rushed  upon  them  with  the 
bayonet,  got  possession  of  them,  and  turned  them  against 
us. 

General  Santa  Anna,  accompanied  by  some  of  his  adju- 
tants, proceeded  by  the  road  to  the  left  of  the  battery, 
when  the  enemy's  column,  now  coming  out  of  the  woods, 
absolutely  prevented  his  passage  by  a  discharge  which 
obliged  him  to  fall  back.  The  carriage  in  which  he  had 
left  Jalapa  was  riddled  with  shot,  the  mules  killed  and  taken 
by  the  enemy,  as  well  as  a  wagon  containing  sixteen  thou- 
sand dollars,  received  the  day  before  for  the  pay  of -the 
troops.  Every  tie  of  command  and  obedience  now  being 
broken  among  our  troops,  safety  alone  being  the  object, 
and  all  being  involved  in  a  frightful  whirl,  they  rushed  des- 
perately to  the  narrow  pass  of  the  defile  that  descends  to 
the  Plan  del  Rio,  where  the  General-in-chief  had  proceeded, 
with  the  chiefs  and  officers  who  accompanied  him. 

Horrible,  indeed,  was  the  descent  by  that  narrow  and 
rocky  path,  where  thousands  rushed,  disputing  the  passage 
with  desperation,  and  leaving  a  track  of  blood  upon  the 
road.  All  classes  being  confounded,  all  military  distinc- 
tion and  respect  were  lost,  the  badges  of  rank  became 
marks  for  sarcasm,  that  were  only  meted  out  according  to 
their  grade  and  humiliation.  The  enemy,  now  masters  of 
our  camp,  turned  their  guns  upon  the  fugitives.  This  aug- 
mented more  and  more  the  terror  of  the  multitude  crowded 
through  the  defile,  and  pressed  ever}'  instant  by  a  new 
impulse,  which  increased  the  confusion  and  disgrace  of  the 
ill-fated  day. 

Cerro  Gordo  was  lost  1  *  *  *  Mexico  was  open  to 
the  iniquity  of  the  invader.     *     *     * 

The  following  extract  of  the  report  of  General  Scott  to 
the  War  Department  says  : 


2  14  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

In  this  hurried  and  imperfect  report  I  must  not  omit  to 
say  that  Brigadier  General  Twig*s,  in  passing  the  mountain 
range  beyond  Cerro  Gordo,  crowned  with  the  tower, 
detached  from  his  division,  as  I  suggested  the  day  defore,  a 
strong  force  to  carry  that  height,  which  commanded  the 
Jalapa  road  at  the  foot,  and  could  not  fail,  if  carried,  to 
cut  off  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  enemy's  forces  from  a 
retreat  in  any  direction.  A  portion  of  the  first  artillery, 
under  the  often-distinguished  Brevet  Colonel  Childs,  the 
third  infantry,  under  Captain  Alexander,  the  seventh  infan- 
try, under  Lieutenant  Colonel  Plympton,  and  the  rifles, 
under  Major  Loring,  all  under  the  temporary  command  of 
Colonel  Harney,  2d  dragoons,  during  the  confinement  to 
his  bed  of  Brevet  Brigadier  General  P.  F.  Smith,  composed 
that  detachment.  The  style  of  execution,  which  I  had  the 
pleasure  to  witness,  was  most  brilliant  and  decisive.  The 
brigade  ascended  the  long  and  difficult  slope  of  Cerro 
Gordo,  without  shelter,  and  under  the  tremendous  fire  of 
artiUery  and  musketry,  with  the  utmost  steadiness,  reached 
the  breastworks,  drove  the  enemy  from  them,  planted  the 
colors  of  the  1st  artiller}%  3d  and  7th  infantry — the  enem}''s 
flag  still  flying — and,  after  some  minutes  of  sharp  firing, 
finished  the   conquest  with  the  ba}'onet. 

It  is  a  mcst  pleasing  duty  to  say  that  the  highest  praise 
is  due  to  Harney,  Childs,  Plympton,  Loring,  Alexander, 
their  gallant  officers  and  men,  for  this  brilliant  service,  inde- 
pendent of  the  great  results  which  soon  followed. 

Worth's  division  of  regulars  coming  up  at  this  time,  he 
detached  Brevet  Lieutenant  Colonel  P.  F.  Smith,  with  his 
light  battalion,  to  support  the  assault,  but  not  in  time.  The 
General,  reaching  the  tower  a  few  minutes  before  me,  and 
observing  a  white  flag  displayed  from  the  nearest  portion 
of  the  enemy  towards  the  batteries  below,  sent  out  Colo- 
nels Harney  and  Childs  to  hold  a  parly.  The  surrender 
followed  in  an  hour  or  two. 

In  a  supplemental  report  General  Scott  says  : 

*'  I  have  heretofore  endeavored  to  do  justice  to  the  skill 
and  courage  with  which  the  attack  on  the  height  of  Cerro 
Gordo  was  directed  and  executed,  naming  the  regiments 
most  distinguished,  and  their  commanders,  under  the  lead 
of   Colonel    Harney.     Lieutenant    G.    W.    Smith    led    the 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  215 

engineer  company  as  part  of  the   storming  force,  and  is 
noticed  with  distinction." 

These  praises  of  a  gallant  officer  whom  he  had  capri- 
ciously persecuted,  show  that  he  came  to  realize  that  the 
Colonel  could  as  safely  be  trusted  as  his  junior. 

A  more  accurate  description  of  the  action  in  which  Col- 
onel Harney  had  borne  so  distinguished  a  part,  will  be 
found  in  the  report  of  General  Twiggs,  which  we  give 
entire : 

Head-quarters,  2d  Division  of  Regulars, 

April  ig,  18^7. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  report,  for  the  information  of 
the  general-in-chief,  the  operations  of  my  division  of  regu- 
lars against  the  enemy  on  the  17th  inst. 

Prefacing  this  report,  I  will  state  that  I  arrived  at  Plan 
del  Rio  on  the  iith  instant.  The  advanced  guard  of 
dragoons,  under  Colonel  Harney,  having  driven  from  the 
place  a  body  of  the  enemy's  lancers,  I  then  encamped  my 
division  for  the  night,  intending  the  following  day  (12th)  to 
cover  a  thorough  reconnoissance  of  his  position,  and,  if 
practicable,  to  make  an  effective  attack  on  all  his  works. 
Deeming  it  impracticable  to  advance,  with  advantage,  be- 
yond the  position  which  I  had  gained  during  the  recon- 
noissance on  the  1 2th,  (being  some  three  and  a  half  miles 
from  water,)  I  withdrew  my  main  force  to  my  old  camp, 
keeping  up  a  strong  picket  to  retain  the  ground  I  had 
passed  over,  intending  on  the  following  morning  (the  1 3th) 
at  4  o'clock,  to  make  the  attack  with  effect. 

Two  brigades  of  volunteers,  under  the  command  of 
Brigadier-Generals  Pillow  and  Shields,  respectively,  arrived 
at  my  camp  on  the  12th  instant.  Major-General  Patterson, 
United  States  volunteers,  having  reported  sick,  I  assumed 
command  of  the  whole.  The  volunteers,  wishing  to  partic- 
ipate in  the  fight,  and  being  so  much  broken  down  from  the 
recent  march  from  Vera  Cruz,  I  thought  proper,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Generals  Pillow  and  Shields,  to  defer  the  attack 
one  day.  Having  done  so,  and  having  matured  my  plan 
of  attack,  and  assigned  to  each  division  its  duty,  I  was 
overtaken  by  an  order  of  Major-General  Patterson,  after 
night   on  the  13th,  to   suspend   all  further  offensive  opera- 


2l6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

tions  until  the  arrival  of  the  general-in-chief,  or  until 
ordered  by  himself  (General  Patterson).  Agreeably  to  this 
arrangement  I  received,  on  the  evening  of  the  i6th,  verbal 
orders  from  the  general-in-chief  to  proceed  on  my  line  of 
operations  on  the  right  of  the  national  road.  At  1 1  o'clock, 
A.  M.,  I  got  in  position,  the  right  of  my  column  being  about 
700  yards  from  the  enemy's  main  work.  Lieutenant 
Gardner  held  his  position  under  heavy  fire  until  relieved  by 
Colonel  Harney  with  the  rifle  regiment  and  ist  artillery. 
With  this  force  Colonel  Harney  cleared  the  two  hills  in 
front  of  the  enemy's  main  work,  and  held  secure  the  posi- 
tion intended  for  our  heavy  battery,  which  was  established 
during  the  night  under  the  direction  of  Captain  Lee,  of  the 
engineer  corps.  During  this  evening  Brigadier-General 
Shields  joined  me  with  his  brigade  of  volunteers,  composed 
of  two  Illinois  regiments  under  Colonels  Baker  and  Fore- 
man, and  one  New  York  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Burnett, 

On  the  morning  of  the  i8th,  when  our  heavy  guns 
opened,  Colonel  Harney,  having  been  reinforced  by  the  3d 
and  7th  infantry,  pushed  forward  his  skirmishing  parties. 
Overcoming  all  obstacles  presented  by  the  nature  of  the 
ground,  and  under  a  most  galling  and  destructive  fire,  this 
command  advanced  with  steadiness  and  regularity,  and 
finally  succeeded  in  driving  from  the  strong  position  of 
the  enemy  all  his  forces,  and  in  putting  them  in  complete 
rout. 

In  speaking  of  the  individual  efforts  of  the  officers  in 
command  of  regiments  and  companies,  I  am  unable  to  do 
ample  justice.  Each  and  every  one  seemed  to  be  endeav- 
oring to  excel  in  all  that  is  required  of  gallant  officers. 
They  all  responded  to  the  encouraging  voice  of  their  gal- 
lant leader,  and  conducted  their  men  to  victory  and  glory. 

The  2d  brigade,  under  Colonel  Riley,  advanced  under  a 
heavy  fire  to  gain  a  position  on  the  Jalapa  road  in  rear  of 
the  enemy,  with  a  view  of  cutting  off  his  retreat.  After 
crossing  the  valley  at  the  foot  of  the  Cerro  Gordo,  the  fire  of 
the  enemy  became  so  annoying  that  two  companies  of  the 
2d  infantry  were  ordered  out  as  skirmishers  to  occupy 
them.  The  remainder  of  the  2d,  conducted  by  Captain 
Lee,  engineers,  proceeded  on  their  course.     Perceiving  that 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  21/ 

the  enemy  were  extending  to  their  left,  I  ordered  General 
Shields  to  cross  the  ravine  on  our  right,  and  keep  up  the 
left  bank  on  the  part  previously  reconnoitered  by  Captain 
Lee.  In  the  further  progress  of  this  portion  of  Colonel 
Riley's  brigade,  he  was  obliged  to  turn  his  whole  column 
to  the  left  to  oppose  the  enemy's  direct  movement  down 
the  spur.  Captain  Lee  continued  his  course,  supported  by 
Lieutenant  Benjamin's  company,  4th  artillery.  On  coming 
out  in  the  plain  west  of  the  Cerro  Gordo,  and  in  full  view  of 
the  Jalapa  road,  a  battery  of  five  guns,  supported  by  a 
body  of  lancers  was  discovered.  General  Shields'  brigade 
was  discovered  by  this  portion  of  the  enemy.  The  battery 
opened  with  grape  on  him  and  on  Lieutenant  Benjamin's 
company.  The  gallant  General,  with  a  shout  from  his  men, 
pushed  boldly  for  the  road  on  the  enemy's  left,  who,  seeing 
their  position  completely  turned,  as  well  as  driven  from  the 
hill,  abandoned  themselves  to  flight.  General  Shields  was 
here  severely  wounded,  the  command  of  the  brigade 
devolving  upon  Colonel  Baker,  who  conducted  it  with 
ability.  The  pursuit  was  continued  as  far  as  Encerro,  when 
I  was  overtaken  by  INIajor-General  Patterson,  United  States 
volunteers,  who  then  assumed  command  of  the  advance 
and  ordered  a  halt. 

I  cannot  speak  in  too  high  terms  of  the  conduct  of  Col- 
onel Harney,  who,  united  with  his  indomitable  courage, 
possessed  the  cool  judgment  which  enabled  him  to  know 
just  how  far  to  advance  to  obtain  the  desired  object.  That 
sterling  soldier  and  accomplished  officer,  Major  Sumner,  2d 
dragoons,  who  was  in  command  of  the  regiment  of  mounted 
riflemen,  exhibited  all  the  skill  and  ability  required  of  a 
permanent  commander  of  a  regiment.  He  was  severely 
wounded  in  the  head,  by  an  escopette  ball,  and  obliged  to 
leave  the  field,  the  command  of  the  regiment  devolving 
upon  Major  Loring. 

Captain  Magruder,  ist  artillery,  by  his  wary  and  good 
management  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  succeeded  in  arriv- 
ing very  near  the  enemy's  works,  driving  before  him  the 
parties  immediately  in  front.  His  gallant  conduct  deserves 
especial  notice.  Brevet  First  Lieutenant  Gardner,  7th 
infantry,  whose  company  was  first  sent  on  the  hill,  by  sus- 
taining  himself  against  a  vastly  superior  force,  displayed 


2l8  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

that  ability  as  commander  of  a  company  which,  on  a  former 
occasion,  acquired  for  him  the  distinction  he  now  has  as 
brevet  first  Heutenant. 

I  am  sorry  that  the  advantages  gained  over  the  enemy 
the  first  day  were  attended  with  some  loss  on  our  side. 
Besides  Major  Sumner,  second  dragoons,  and  Lieutenant 
Maury,  rifle  regiment,  who  were  severely  wounded,  and 
Lieutenant  George  H.  Gordon,  rifle  regiment,  serving  in 
Major  Talcott's  battery  of  mountain  howitzers,  and  Lieu- 
tenant Gibbs,  mounted  riflemen,  slightly,  some  fifty  casual- 
ties occurred,  principally  in  the  first  artillery  and  rifle  regi- 
ments. 

Of  the  conduct  of  the  volunteer  force  under  the  brave 
General  Shields,  I  cannot  speak  in  too  high  terms.  After 
he  was  wounded,  portions  of  the  three  regiments  were  with 
me  when  I  arrived  first  at  the  Jalapa  road,  and  drove  before 
them  the  enemy's  cannoniers  from  their  loaded  guns. 
Their  conduct  and  names  shall  be  the  subject  of  a  special 
report,  as  also  that  of  the  several  officers  of  the  regular 
army,  who  were  distinguished  on  the  occasion. 

Accompanied  with  this,  I  trans'^iit  the  several  reports 
from  brigade  and  regimental  heau-quarters.  In  all  the 
recommendations  for  praise  and  promotion  I  entirely  con- 
cur. 

Although,  whatever  I  may  say,  may  add  little  to  the 
good  reputation  of  Captain  Lee,  of  the  engineer  corps,  yet  I 
must  indulge  in  the  pleasure  of  speaking  of  the  invaluable 
services  which  he  rendered  me  from  the  time  I  left  the 
main  road,  until  he  conducted  Colonel  Riley's  brigade  to 
its  position  in  rear  of  the  enemy's  strong  work  on  the  Ja- 
lapa road.  I  consulted  him  with  confidence,  and  adopted 
his  suggestions  with  entire  assurance.  His  gallantry  and 
good  conduct  on  both  days  deserve  the  highest  praise.  I 
again  present  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, and  the  President,  the  names  of  my  per- 
sonal staff.  First  Lieutenant  W.  T.  H.  Brooks,  third  infan- 
try, A.  A.  G.,  and  First  Lieutenant  P.  W.  McDonald,  sec- 
ond dragoons,  A.  D.  C,  Captain  R.  A.  Allen,  A.  O.  M., 
rendered  me  invaluable  services,  not  only  in  communicating 
orders  when  he  was  in  the  field,  but  in  keeping  at  hand 
under  all  disadvantages,  the  necessary  supplies  for  my  di- 


/  THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  2ig 

vision.  For  his  services  on  this,  and  on  former  occasions, 
I  most  earnestly  recommend  him  for  promotion.  To  Lieu- 
tenants Mason,  Beauregard,  and  Tower,  of  the  engineers, 
and  Lieutenant  Sykes,  third  infantry,  A.  C.  S.  to  the  divi- 
sion, I  am  indebted  for  vakiable  services.  Whilst  on  recon- 
noitering  duty  on  the  I2th,  I  lost  the  valuable  services  of 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Johnston,  who  was  on  duty  with  me 
as  chief  topographical  engineer,  and  was  very  severely 
wounded  under  the  enemy's  works  on  the  left  of  the  road. 

In  conclusion,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  tendering  my 
thanks  to  the  commanders  of  regiments  and  batteries, 
whose  conduct  tended  so  much  to  the  attainment  of  our 
glorious  victory.  The  first  brigade,  under  Colonel  Harney, 
was  composed  of  the  1st  artillery,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Childs,  the  rifle  regiment,  (after  Major  Sumner  was  wound- 
ed), commanded  by  Major  Loring,  and  the  7th  infantry, 
commanded  by  Colonel  Plympton. 

The  2d  brigade,  under  Colonel  Riley,  was  composed  of 
the  4th  artillery,  commanded  by  Major  Gardner,  the  2d 
infantry,  commanded  by  Captain  Morris,  and  the  3d  infan- 
try, commanded  by  Captain  Alexander. 

The  volunteer  force  under  my  orders  was  composed  of 
the  3d  Illinois  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel  Baker,  the 
4th  Illinois  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel  Foreman,  and 
the  New  York  regiment,  commanded  by  Colonel  Burnett. 
The  field  battery  was  commanded  by  Captain  Taylor,  and 
the  howitzer  battery  by  Major  Talcott. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient 
servant, 

D.  E.  TWIGGS, 
Brigadier  General  U.  S.  A. 

Captain  H.  L.  Scott, 

Acting  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

We  also  append  Colonel  Harney's  report : 

Jalapa,  Mexico,  April  21,  184.7. 
StR:  On  the  evening  of  the  i6th  instant,  owing  to  the 
illness  of  Brevet  Brigadier  General  Smith,  I  was  placed  in 
command  of  the  ist  brigade  of  the  2d  division,  and  it  is 
now  my  grateful  duty  to  report  the  operations  of  that  bri- 
gade   in  the    actions  of  the    17th   and   i8th    instant.     Our 


220  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

encampment  at  Plan  del  Rio  enabled  the  engineer  officers 
to  make  frequent  and  close  observations  on  the  enemy's 
position,  and  it  was  ascertained  that  he  had  fortified  himself 
on  a  range  of  hills  for  two  miles  in  a  mountain  pass,  and 
that  the  last  of  his  works  was  on  the  Cerro  Gordo,  which, 
from  its  position  and  defences,  was  considered  almost 
impregnable. 

On  the  morning  of  the  17th  the  2d  division,  under  the 
command  of  Brigadier  Genera^  Twiggs,  was  directed  to 
turn  the  enemy  by  the  right  flank,  and  I  was  ordered  by 
that  officer  to  seize  and  maintain  all  the  heights  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Cerro  Gordo,  which,  from  their  prox- 
imity and  position,  might  be  of  advantage  in  an  attack  on 
that  fortress.  Shortly  after  the  column  turned  off  to  the 
right  from  the  main  road,  Brevet  First  Lieutenant  F.  Gard- 
ner, 7th  infantry,  was  directed  with  his  company  to  move 
to  the  crest  of  the  hill  on  the  left,  and  to  watch  the  enemy's 
movements.  While  in  the  execution  of  this  order,  Lieu- 
tenant Gardner  became  engaged  with  the  enemy,  but  he 
gallantly  maintained  his  position  against  fearful  odds,  until 
he  was  succored  by  the  riflemen  under  Major  Sumner,  and 
the  artillery  under  Colonel  Childs,  who  drove  the  enemy, 
after  a  severe  conflict,  from  their  first  position,  and  con- 
tinued the  pursuit  until  they  made  a  second  stand  on  a  hill 
near  the  Cerro  Gordo,  within  the  range  of  their  grape  and 
cannister,  and  from  which  our  troops  suffered  a  severe  loss; 
but  the  hill  was  stormed  and  carried,  and  afterwards  main- 
tained, although  the  enemy  made  three  successive  charges 
to  regain  it.  A  portion  of  the  troops  under  Colonel  Childs, 
led  on  by  their  zeal  and  impetuosity,  rushed  down  the  hill 
to  the  ascent  of  the  Cerro  Gordo  ;  but  as  an  attack  was  not 
intended  at  that  time  they  were  recalled  and  joined  Gen- 
eral Twiggs. 

The  rifles  and  7th  infantry  slept  on  the  hill,  and  to  that 
point  were  brought,  in  the  night,  a  24-pounder  and  two 
24-howitzers,  which  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning,  com- 
menced a  cannonade  on  the  enemy's  fortification  on  the 
Cerro  Gordo. 

Early  in  the  morning  I  was  reinforced  by  four  companies 
1st  artillery,  under  Lieutenant  Colonel  Childs,  and  six  com- 
panies, ^d  infantry,  under  Caotain  Alexander,  and  I  imme- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  221 

diately  gave  directions  to  the  different  commanders  to 
prepare  their  troops  for  storming  Cerro  Gordo.  The  rifles 
were  directed  to  move  to  the  left  in  the  ravine  and  to 
engage  the  enemy;  and  I  instructed  Major  Loring  that,  as 
soon  as  I  had  discovered  that  he  had  commenced  the 
attack,  I  would  move  forward  the  storming  force  which  I 
was  about  to  organize.  The  /th  infantry  was  formed  on 
the  right,  the  3d  infantry  on  the  left,  and  the  artillery  was 
formed  in  the  rear  of  the  infantry,  with  orders  to  support 
it.  Observing  that  a  large  force  was  moving  from  the  left 
on  the  main  road,  towards  the  Cerro  Gordo,  I  deemed  it 
prudent  to  advance  at  once,  and  immediately  ordered  the 
charge  to  be  sounded  without  waiting  for  the  fire  of  the 
riflemen.  The  enemy  poured  upon  my  line  a  most  galling 
fire  of  grape,  cannister,  and  musketry,  from  different  posi- 
tions around  the  hill;  but  my  troops  advanced  intrepidly 
and  as  steadily  as  on  a  parade  day.  I  cannot  speak  too 
ardently  of  their  animation,  zeal,  and  courage  under  such 
trying  circumstances,  and  without  which  they  never  could 
have  surmounted  the  natural  and  artificial  obstacles  which 
opposed  their  progress. 

Around  the  hill,  about  sixty  yards  from  the  foot,  there 
was  a  breastwork  of  stone,  which  was  filled  with  Mexican 
troops,  who  offered  an  obstinate  resistance,  continuing  to 
fire  until  the  troops  reached  the  breastwork,  and  where, 
for  a  few  moments,  bayonets  were  crossed.  Beyond  this 
and  immediately  around  the  fort,  there  was  another  work 
from  which  our  advance  was  again  obstinately  opposed  ; 
but  the  troops  immediately  surmounted  it,  carried  the  fort, 
pulled  down  the  Mexican  flag,  and  planted  our  colors  amid 
the  proud  rejoicings  of  our  troops. 

Agreeably  to  instructions,  the  rifles  moved  to  the  left, 
where  they  became  engaged  with  a  succoring  force,  but 
which  they  held  in  check,  notwithstanding  a  most  galling 
fire  from  the  enemy's  entrenchments  and  from  the  mus- 
ketry in  front.  After  the  enemy's  cannon  had  been  cap- 
tured, I  directed  Captain  Magruder  to  take  charge  of  the 
pieces  and  to  direct  their  fire  upon  the  enemy,  which  he 
executed  with  zeal  and  ability. 

It  is  also  due  to  Lieutenant  Richardson  to  state  that,  as 
soon  as  he  came  into  the  fort,  he  took  possession  of  one  of 


222  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  enemy's  guns,  and,  with  his  men,  promptly  turned  «t 
with  great  effect  upon  the  enemy.  I  also  directed  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Plympton,  at  the  same  time,  to  move  with 
his  regiment  into  the  Jalapa  road  to  cut  off  the  enemy's 
retreat,  which  he  promptly  executed,  and  maintained  his 
position  until  the  forts  and  forces  of  the  enemy  had  sur- 
rendered. 

Such  is  a  plain,  but  I  know  an  imperfect  and  hasty 
account  of  the  actions  of  the  17th  and  1 8th  instant.  For 
further  particulars,  I  would  respectfully  refer  the  com- 
mander of  the  division  to  the  reports  of  the  different  com- 
manders of  regiments,  which  are  herewith  enclosed. 

It  is  now  my  delicate  duty  to  refer  to  the  different  acts 
of  personal  gallantry  displayed  by  individual  officers,  non- 
commissioned officers,  and  privates ;  and  as  many  of  these 
did  not  come  under  my  own  observation,  I  would  again 
refer  the  commander  of  the  division  to  the  different  reports 
of  the  regimental  commanders,  with  the  hope  that  the 
merits  of  all,  however  humble  their  situation,  may  be  prop- 
erly brought  before  the  notice  of  the  government.  To 
Colonel  Plympton,  Colonel  Childs,  Major  Sumner,  Major 
Loring,  and  Captain  Alexander,  my  especial  thanks  are  due 
for  their  coolness,  zeal,  gallantry,  and  for  the  promptitude 
with  which,  on  all  occasions,  they  executed  my  orders.  Cap- 
tain Steptoe,  3d  artillery,  Lieutenant  Hagner,  and  Lieuten- 
ant Reno,  ordnance  department,  and  Lieutenant  Seymour, 
of  the  artillery,  rendered  efficient  service  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  artillery  on  the  hill.  Lieutenant  G.  VV.  Smith, 
of  the  engineers,  with  his  company,  rendered  very  efficient 
service  in  his  own  department,  as  well  as  in  storming  the 
fort.  The  conduct  of  Captain  Mason,  of  the  rifles,  who 
was  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose  his  leg,  came  under  my  per- 
sonal observation,  and  it  is  not  the  first  time  I  have  had  an 
opportunity  of  witnessing  his  coolness  and  intrepidity  in 
danger.  Captain  Magruder's  gallantry  was  conspicuously 
displayed  on  several  occasions,  and  he  rendered  me 
efficient  service.  I  lament  to  refer  to  the  death  of  Lieu- 
tenant Ewell,  whose  gallant  demeanor,  throughout  the  sev- 
eral engagements  with  the  enemy,  attracted  my  special 
notice,  and  who  fell  in  the  breastwork,  nobly  leading  his 
men   to   victory.     Particular  attention    is    due    to    Captain 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  223 

Hanson  and  Lieutenant  Gardner  for  distinguished  gallantry. 
Major  Bainbridge,  whose  good  conduct  has  been  conspicu- 
ous on  so  many  occasions  since  the  war  with  Mexico,  was 
the  second  officer  in  rank  in  his  regiment,  and  deserves  my 
warmest  approbation  for  his  gallantry  and  promptitude. 
Especial  thanks  are  due  to  my  personal  staff,  Lieutenant 
Van  Dorn,  /th  infantry,  Lieutenant  Oakes,  2d  dragoons,  and 
Lieutenant  Derby,  topographical  engineers,  for  the  efficient 
aid  which  they  rendered  me  both  days  in  transmitting  my 
orders  and  for  the  individual  gallantry  which  they  uniformly 
displayed.  Lieutenant  Derby  was  wounded,  and  Lieuten- 
ant Van  Dorn  killed  two  Mexican  soldiers  at  the  breast- 
work with  his  own  hands.  I  have  been  reluctant  to  men- 
tion the  names  of  any,  where  all  acted  with  so  much 
energy,  zeal,  and  intrepidity ;  no  doubt  many  behaved  as 
well  as  those  I  have  mentioned,  but  who  did  not  come 
under  my  observation  ;  and  I  know  that  all,  if  occasion 
had  offered,  would  have  gladly  embraced  the  opportunity 
for  personal  distinction. 

In  the  two  days,  I  had  in  my  brigade,  including  the  3d 
infantry,  two  officers  killed,  nine  wounded ;  twenty-nine 
non-commissioned  officers  and  privates  killed,  175  non- 
commissioned officers  and  privates  wounded.  The  officers 
killed  in  my  command  are  :  Lieutenants  Ewell  and  Davis, 
of  the  rifles  ;  and  wounded — Major  Sumner,  Captain  S.  T. 
Mason,  Lieutenants  G.  McLane,  D.  H.  Maury,  and  A. 
Gibbs,  of  the  rifles ;  Lieutenants  J.  N.  Ward  and  B.  E.  Bee, 
3d  infantry;  Lieutenant  N.  J.  T.  Dana,  7th  infantry,  and 
Lieutenant  Derby,  topographical  engineers. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient 
servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Col.  2d  dragoons,  cojnnianding  ist  brigade. 
To  Lieut.  W.  T.  H.  Brooks,  A.  A.  A.  G.,  2d  division. 

An  incident  worthy  to  be  remembered  is  related  by  Gen- 
eral Harney  himself  When  the  battle  was  over,  a  Mexi- 
can officer  was  seen  slowly  riding  along  the  road  at  the 
foot  of  the  hill  and  in  reach  of  the  American  fire.  The 
troops,  without  orders,  commenced  firing  at  him,  which 
Colonel   Harney   perceiving,   he   gave   the   order  to   cease 


224  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

firing,  but  before  the  order  could  be  transmitted,  some  five 
hundred  guns  liad  been  fired  at  him.  The  Mexican  had 
never  altered  his  pace,  but  as  soon  as  the  firing  ceased  he 
raised  his  hand  to  his  head  and  gracefully  saluted  the 
Americans. 

On  the  15th  day  of  May,  when  the  news  had  reached 
New  Orleans  and  LaFayette  of  Colonel  Harney's  gallant 
conduct  at  Cerro  Gordo,  the  citizens  made  him  a  present 
of  a  horse,  which  was  shipped  to  him  in  Mexico,  with  the 
accompanying  letter,  as  follows  : 

New  Orleans,  15th  of  May,  1847. 
Colonel  Wm.  S.  Harney. 

Sir  :  The  undersigned,  in  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  New 
Orleans  and  LaFayette,  have  purchased  a  horse,  which 
they  beg  you  to  accept  as  a  token  of  the  esteem  and  adora- 
tion in  which  you  are  held  by  them  for  your  gallant  con- 
duct, but  more  especially  for  the  important  services  you 
have  rendered  our  glorious  republic  in  the  late  battle  of 
Cerro  Gordo. 

W.  B.  Higdon, 
John  M.  Carrigan. 

On  the  1 8th  day  of  April,  1847,  for  gallant  and  merito- 
rious conduct  at  Cerro  Gordo,  Colonel  Harney  was  bre- 
veted Brigadier-General  in  the  United  States  army.  He 
had  then  held  his  Colonelcy  not  quite  a  year.  This  compli- 
ment came  to  him  as  a  prompt  recognition  of  his  services 
to  his  country. 

The  victorious  army  moved  immediately  upon  Jalapa, 
after  caring  for  their  wounded  and  prisoners,  which  they 
quietly  possessed  themselves  of,  until  their  baggage  and 
supplies  could  be  moved  up. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR  CONTINUED. 

\-  /HE  victorious  Americans  took  possession  of  Jalapa 
I  on  the  19th  day  of  April.  The  Mexicans  aban- 
doned  the  strong  position  of  La  Hoyo,  with  its  mu- 
nitions and  stores,  and  on  the  22d  General  Worth  occupied 
the  Castle  of  Perote,  and  captured  fifty-four  pieces  of  can- 
non and  a  large  amount  of  ammunition.  Soon  afterwards, 
on  the  15th  of  May,  the  ancient  city  of  Puebla  was  cap- 
tured by  General  Worth.  The  Mexicans  had  been  able  to 
make  but  little  resistance  after  their  signal  defeat  at  Cerro 
Gordo,  and  but  feeble  resistance  was  offered  the  American 
army,  reduced  by  the  casualties  of  battle  and  the  more  dire 
causalties  of  disease  engendered  by  hardships  and  climate, 
to  not  exceeding  five  thousand  men. 

Puebla  los  Angeles,  or  city  of  the  Angels,  contained 
eighty  thousand  inhabitants  and  is  about  ninety  miles  from 
the  City  of  Mexico,  and  two  hundred  miles  from  Vera 
Cruz,  It  is  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  lecvel  of  the 
sea.  General  Scott  could  have  marched  on  to  Mexico,  but 
his  effective  force  was  reduced  to  less  than  five  thousand. 
Many  of  his  troops  were  volunteers  for  twelve  months,  of 
some  of  whom  the  time  had  expired,  and  they  had  been 
discharged  before  reaching  Puebla.  The  American  army 
of  invasion,  rendezvoused  at  the  Island  of  Lobos,  had  been 
fourteen  thousand  strong,  with  the  number  discharged, 
the  sick  and  disabled,  and  the  garrison  at  Jalapa  and  other 
places  necessary  to  preserve  the  communication  with  Vera 
Cruz,  the  effective  force  had  been  reduced  ten  thousand. 
Even  with  this  small  army,  such  was  the  spirit  and  confi- 
dence of  the  Americans    that   they  could,   and  probably 

15  225 


226  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

would,  have  marched  upon  the  capital  city,  but  the  Govern- 
ment at  Washington  were  anxious  for  peace,  and  the  Presi- 
dent and  cabinet  sent  an  agent  in  the  person  of  Mr. 
Nicholas  P.  Trist,  chief  clerk  in  the  State  Department,  to 
negotiate.  General  Scott  had,  after  Cerro  Gordo,  issuc4  a 
proclamation  to  the  IMexican  people,  which,  with  the  strict 
discipline  he  enforced  among  the  troops,  and  the  humanity 
to  prisoners,  as  well  as  fair  dealing  with  the  population, 
had  well  prepared  them  for  peace. 

Mr.  Trist,  armed  with  specific  instructions  and  powers, 
arrived  at  Jalapa  just  before  the  occupation  of  Puebla. 
The  negotiations  of  Mr.  Trist,  as  well  as  the  necessity  of 
awaiting  reinforcements  from  the  United  States,  necessitated 
a  comparative  cessation  of  active  hostilities;  but  during 
this  time  the  troops  were  drilled  and  kept  active  by 
constant  duty.  In  about  two  months  the  army  at 
Puebla  was  recruited  to  about  eleven  thousand  effective 
men. 

Thus  strengthened  and  reinforced,  a  council  of  war  was 
held  on  the  5th  day  of  August,  and  the  plans  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief for  the  advance  on  the  capital  were  sub- 
mitted and  explained.  In  making  his  arrangements  for 
that  important  and  perilous  enterprise,  General  Scott  testi- 
fied his  appreciation  of  Colonel  Harney  by  placing  under 
his  command  a  brigade  of  cavalry,  consisting  of  the  ist 
Dragoons,  commanded  by  Captain  Kearney,  the  2d  Dra- 
goons under  command  of  Major  Sumner,  and  the  3d  Dra- 
goons under  Captain  McReynolds.  The  cavalry  brigade 
under  Colonel  Harney  moved  out  of  Puebla  as  the  advance 
guard,  just  preceding  the  second  division  under  General 
Twiggs.  On  the  8th  the  division  of  General  Quitman  fol- 
lowed ;  Worth's  division  moved  on  the  9th,  and  Pillow's  on 
the  loth.  The  road  taken  by  the  army  was  the  stage  road 
from  Vera  Cruz,  by  way  of  Puebla,  to  the  City  of  Mexico. 
The  route  followed  by  Cortez  over  three  hundred  years 
before,  converges  with  this  road  after  diverging  to  the  right 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  227 

near  Perote,  and  passing  around  Popocatapetl,  near  Lake 
Chalco. 

The  country  around  Puebla  is  beautiful,  rolling  and 
fertile;  the  climate  is  temperate,  and  there  is  a  "continual 
ascent  of  the  Cordilleras  as  you  move  toward  the  City  of 
Mexico.  The  snow-capped  mountains  lay  on  either  side, 
and  the  volcanic  peak  of  Popocatapetl  arose  and  towered 
over  the  smaller  ranges  on  the  left,  many  miles  away. 

The  army  ascended  three  thousand  feet  above  Puebla  in 
fifty-eight  miles,  and  on  the  third  day  reached  Rio  Trio 
and  the  Anahuac  range,  within  forty-five  miles  of  the 
capital.  In  front  of  this  the  enemy  had  prepared  for  re- 
sistance, but  they  had  abandoned  their  intention  of  offering 
battle  at  this  point.  After  passing  the  Anahuac  range 
several  miles,  on  making  a  sudden  turn  to  the  right,  the 
Americans  came  in  sight  of  the  vast  plain,  with  its  beauti- 
ful lakes,  in  which  is  situated  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  its 
lofty  domes  and  steeples  rose  in  the  clear  air.  The  land- 
scape was  most  beautiful  and  picturesque.  It  lies  in  a 
great  basin  of  the  Cordilleras,  and  is  dotted  with  lakes. 

On  the  1 0th  day  of  August,  General  Twiggs  encamped 
at  the  base  of  the  mountain,  and  the  enemy's  scouts  began 
to  be  seen  and  felt  in  every  direction,  in  front  and  flank. 
They  could  see  the  Lake  Tezcuco  in  their  front,  and  at 
the  lower  end  of  it,  about  half-way,  seven  miles  off,  a  for- 
tified mountain  called  El  Penon;  a  series  of  other  lakes  and 
fortified  places  defended  the  approaches  to  the  city  which 
ran  by  the  road  from  Ayotla,  and  through  lakes  and 
marshes  over  great  causeways. 

Before  approaching  the  enemy's  abandoned  fortifications, 
General  Scott  sent  for  Colonel  Harney,  on  whose  gallantry 
and  dash,  as  well  as  discretion,  he  had  learned  to  rely, 
since  the  affairs  of  Madellin  and  Cerro  Gordo,  and  said  to 
him,  "  Colonel,  I  have  information  from  General  Worth  of 
the  enemy  in  our  front,  and  in  force ;  I  want  your  most 
vigilant  attention  to  their  movements  and  approach."    Col- 


228     .  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

onel  Ilarncy  replied,  "  General,  \vhatever  force  of  the 
enemy  there  may  be,  I  may  not  be  able  to  defeat  them,  but 
I  promise  you  I  can  hold  them  at  bay."  General  Scott 
seized  Colonel  Harney  by  the  hand,  and  said,  "  Colonel,  I 
have  every  confidence  in  you."  The  facts  were.  Colonel 
Harney  was  well  satisfied  that  General  Worth's  information 
was  incorrect,  for  his  position  in  the  van  and  -covering  the 
head  of  the  invading  forces,  gave  him  facilities  for  informa- 
tion, which  his  sleepless  vigilance  never  failed  to  acquire. 
In  the  honorable  position  of  the  post  of  danger,  and  with 
the  responsible  duty  of  covering  the  advance,  he  served 
from  Puebla  to  the  assault  of  Chapultepec. 

On  the  nth  of  August,  General  Twiggs'  division  reached 
Ayotla,  about  fifteen  miles  from  Mexico  by  the  National 
road.  The  other  divisions  came  up  in  their  order  and  took 
position ;  Worth's  division  at  the  village  of  Chalco,  behind 
Lake  Chalco,  which  lies  south  of  Ayotla,  and  the  divisions 
of  Pillow  and  Quitman  between  Worth  and  Twiggs.  In 
front  of  Twiggs'  division  lay  a  fortified  mountain  called 
El  Penon,  and  beyond  that  could  be  seen  Lake  Tezcuco, 
west  of  which  lay  the  City  of  Mexico.  Passing  around  the 
lake,  or  between  it  and  the  Lake  Xochimilco,  the  road  from 
Mexico  to  Acapulco  is  reached,  on  which  lie,  at  or  near 
the  road  and  commanding  it,  San  Antonia,  Contreras  and 
Churubusco.  These  fortified  places  lie  between  San  Au- 
gustine, afterwards  a  depot  of  stores  and  supplies,  and  the 
city.  Contreras  lies  nearly  four  miles  northwest  of  the 
Acapulco  road  at  San  Antonia,  and  between  that  and  the 
Tacubaya  causeway.  Churubusco  was  a  fortified  post,  or 
tete  du  pont,  at  the  crossing  of  a  stream  or  canal  of  the  same 
name,  which  commands  the  Acapulco  road.  There  are 
three  great  roads  which  enter  the  City  of  Mexico;  the 
National  road,  on  which  Twiggs  was  encamped  at  Ayotla, 
the  Acapulco  road,  and  the  Tacubaya. 

On  the  1 2th  of  August,  a  part  of  the  cavalry  brigade,  of 
which  Colonel    Harney  was  in  command,  was   ordered   to 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  229 

reconnoitre  El  Penon,  a  strongly  fortified  mountain  on  the 
road  from  Ayotla,  about  half-way  to  the  City  of  Mexico. 
This  reconnoitering  party  was  composed  of  the  rifle  regi- 
ment and  three  companies  of  cavalry.  They  performed  their 
duty  faithfully  and  reported  the  route  to  Mexico,  by  that 
road,  impracticable.  The  rifles  and  dragoons  continued 
their  reconnoissance  to  the  left.  They  discovered,  about 
five  miles  from  the  city,  five  strong  batteries  commanding 
the  road  at  Mexicalcingo,  which  is  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Xochimilco.  The  reconnoitering  party  countermarched 
and  found  the  batteries  of  El  Penon  between  them  and 
Twiggs'  division,  but  they  were  not  fired  on.  General 
Scott  decided  that  to  advance  by  the  National  road  was 
impracticable,  or  if  practicable,  on  grounds  of  humanity, 
ought  not  to  be  undertaken,  as  it  could  only  be  carried  by 
assault,  and  could  not  be  turned.  He,  therefore,  deter- 
mined to  turn  the  fortifications  of  the  city,  by  passing  to 
the  west  of  Lakes  Chalco  and  Xochimilco,  and  made  his 
approaches  by  the  Acapulco  road  and  the  Tacubaya. 
Worth's  division  was  accordingly  put  in  motion,  and, 
marching  around  the  south  end  of  the  Lake  Chalco,  on  the 
17th  day  of  August  reached  San  Augustine.  The  other 
divisions  soon  followed,  and  on  the  1 8th  all  the  army  was 
concentrated  at  San  Augustine. 

On  the  1 8th  of  August,  Worth's  division  was  advanced 
from  San  Augustine  towards  San  Antonia,  a  fortified  place 
on  the  Acapulco  road,  and  in  a  skirmish  with  the  enemy 
Captain  Thornton,  of  the  2d  dragoons.  Colonel  Harney's 
regiment,  was  killed.  He  was  the  first  man  killed  in  the 
operations  which  resulted  in  the  capture  of  Mexico.  Gen- 
eral Valencia,  in  the  meantime,  with  six  thousand  men,  had 
advanced  to  the  fortified  hill  of  Contreras.  General  Rincon 
took  command  at  Churubusco  and  strengthened  the  fortifi- 
cations. The  Mexican  forces  moving  within  the  short 
lines,  made  their  strongest  dispositions  for  defence  at  the 
new  points  of  attack. 


230  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Colonel  Harney,  whose  brigade 
was  in  constant  service  as  scouts  and  reconnoitering  par- 
ties, encountered  a  man  named  Fitzwater,  an  American, 
who  had  wandered  off  to  the  City  of  Mexico.  This  man 
had  been  engaged  in  the  business  of  stage  driving,  and 
knew,  of  course,  the  roads  and  causeways.  He  had  mar- 
ried a  Mexican  woman  and  was  domesticated  among  them. 
From  him  Colonel  Harney  acquired  valuable  information 
as  to  the  vulnerable  points  of  attack,  which  ultimately  de- 
termined the  commanding  General  to  plan  his  battles  in 
the  manner  he  so  effectually  pursued.  Santa  Anna  was 
rapidly  strengthening  General  Valencia,  and  reinforcements 
from  the  city  were  reported  hourly  arriving.  Throwing 
forward  General  Twiggs'  division  as  a  corps  of  observation, 
and  for  the  protection  of  some  working  parties,  who  were 
cutting  a  road,  Captain  Magruder's  battery  was,  with  great 
difficulty,  got  into  position.  They  were  met  by  the  Mex- 
icans, with  twenty-two  pieces  of  artillery,  which,  after 
a  severe  fight,  dismounted  all  Magruder's  guns  but  one, 
and  killed  some  fifteen  of  the  cannoniers.  The  Mexican 
lancers  made  several  charges,  but  were  repulsed.  In  this 
action  Colonel  Harney  rendered  efficient  service  in  com- 
mand of  his  cavalry. 

On  the  20th  General  Scott  determined  to  carry  Contre- 
ras.  General  Twiggs'  division  was  first  on  the  ground,  and 
made  immediate  dispositions  for  battle ;  the  other  corps 
and  divisions  were  taking  their  places,  in  the  night-time, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  Mexicans.  At  6  a.  m.,  the 
arrangements  for  battle  were  made  ;  when  the  word  was 
given  our  men  sprang  up  in  the  rear  and  on  both  flanks  of 
the  Mexicans,  rushed  over  the  hill,  and  dashed  into  the 
entrenchments.  The  batteries  were  taken,  and  General 
Valencia's  army  driven  out.  The  battle  was  ended  almost 
as  soon  as  begun,  and  Valencia  was  pursued  over  the 
causeway. 

The  part  taken  in  this  affair  by  Colonel  Harney  is  men- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 


2^1 


tioned  in  a  report  made   by  Captain   Kearney,  on  the  24th 
day  of  August,  1847.      He  says  : 

After  the  enemy's  works  wefe  carried,  I  was  ordered  to 
charge  down  the  road  towards  the  city,  after  the  retreating 
enemy.  On  the  route  I  was  joined  by  Colonel  Harney 
with  several  companies  of  the  2d  dragoons  ;  he  assumed 
command,  and  directed  me  with  my  three  troops  of  dra- 
goons,  to  place  myself  and  command  at  the  head  of  the 


THE  CHARGE. 


cavalry  colurrin  ;  the  Mexicans  were  overtaken  soon  after 
we  entered  on  the  causeway,  about  three-fourths  of  a  mile 
from  the  city,  and  suffered  a  severe  slaughter  up  to  its  very 
gates. 

Understanding  that  a  battery  was  on  the  end  of  the 
causeway  next  the  town,  I  communicated  through  Lieu- 
tenant Steele,  A.  A.  A.   General,  to  Colonel  Harney  my 


232  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV, 

firm  intention  to  charge  it,  trusting  to  their  panic  to  enter 
with  the  fugitives.  Myself,  Lieutenant  Steele,  and 
Lieutenant  Ewell,  together  with  some  dragoons  whose 
horses  were  over-excited,  were  considerably  ahead  of 
the  main  body,  coming  full  on  the  redoubt,  when  the 
enemy  opened  a  fire  of  grape  upon  us,  amongst  their  fugi- 
tives, and  I  gave  the  command  to  the  men  around  me  to 
dismount  and  carry  it,  presuming  that  the  movement  would 
be  observed  and  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  column.  This 
movement  not  being  understood  by  our  men,  and  the  recall 
which  had  been  sounded  and  imperfectly  heard  from  the 
rear,  caused  them  to  halt  and  retire,  but  in  creditable  order. 

Also  the  report  of  Major  Sumner: 

Head-quarters,  2d  Dragoons,  near  the  city  of  Mexico, 

Augi^st  2^,  i8^y. 

Sir:  In  compliance  with  the  direction  of  Colonel  Har- 
ney, I  submit  a  brief  report  of  the  services  of  the  2d  regi- 
ment of  dragoons  and  company  I,  mounted  rifles,  during 
the  late  operations. 

We  marched  from  Puebla,  at  the  head  of  the  army,  on 
the  7th  instant.  On  our  arrival  at  the  hacienda  "  Buena 
Vista,"  at  the  foot  of  the  western  slope  of  the  mountains, 
on  the  lOth  instant,  we  first  met  the  enemy.  They 
appeared  in  considerable  force  about  a  mile  in  our  front, 
and  preparations  were  immediately  made  to  charge  them, 
on  which  they  disappeared,  and  we  took  quarters  in  the 
hacienda.  Shortly  afterwards,  they  appeared  again  and 
drove  in  several  of  our  men  who  had  gone  some  distance 
to  the  front.  Colonel  Harney  then  ordered  me  to  take  a 
squadron  and  pursue  them,  which  was  done  at  a  rapid  pace, 
he  supporting  me  with  the  rest  of  the  regiment.  The 
enemy  fled  so  fast  we  could  not  overtake  them,  and  we 
halted  at  the  end  of  a  mile  and  a  half 

On  the  17th  instant,  as  we  approached  San  Augustine,  the 
enemy  again  appeared  in  force,  but  they  retired  before  us. 
Captain  Blake  of  the  2d  dragoons,  who  commanded  the 
advanced  guard  of  the  army,  entered  the  town  and  took 
possession  of  it  after  a  skirmish  with  the  enemy.  On  the 
l8th,  we  marched  at  an  early  hour  with  the  ist  division. 
Captain  Thornton  taking  the  lead  with  the  advanced  guard. 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  233 

As  we  approached  San  Antonia,  their  guns  were  partially 
concealed,  and  the  brave  Captain  Thornton  unfortunately- 
advanced  too  far,  when  he  received  a  cannon  shot  from 
their  battery  which  struck  him  in  the  breast  and  killed  him 
instantly.  On  the  19th,  at  the  battle  of  St.  Heronimo,  my 
command  was  held  in  reserve  within  range  of  the  enemy's 
shells.  On  the  20th,  it  became  necessary  to  split  up  the 
cavalry  into  so  many  detachments,  that  both  Colonel  Jiar- 
ney  and  myself  were  left  without  commands  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  day.  On  this  day,  Captains  Hardee  and  Ruff 
were  holding  important  points  round  San  Augustine,  and 
the  former  was  attacked  by  a  large  band  of  guerrillas,  who 
were  repulsed  and  driven  off  by  Captain  Hardee  and  his 
subaltern.  Lieutenant  Anderson.  The  firing  being  heard  at 
San  Augustine,  two  companies  of  the  2d  and  one  of  the  3d 
dragoons  were  promptly  taken  out  to  his  assistance  by 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Moore  of  the  3d  dragoons.  But  the 
enemy  had  retired  before  they  arrived,  and  further  pursuit 
was  deemed  unnecessary.  In  this  encounter,  between 
thirty  and  forty  horses  with  arms  and  accoutrements  were 
captured  by  Captain  Hardee.  Captain  Blake,  with  his 
squadron,  was  engaged  in  conducting  and  securing  the 
prisoners  taken  at  St.  Heronimo.  Captain  Ker,  of  the  2d 
dragoons,  was  ordered  to  report  to  General  Pierce,  and  was 
engaged  with  the  enemy  for  some  time,  and  afterwards  in 
the  charge,  under  the  direction  of  Colonel  Harney,  that 
drove  the  flying  enemy  into  the  city.  During  all  these 
operations,  my  command  has  been  actively  engaged  in 
reconnoitering,  on  picket  guards  and  patrol  duty,  and  as  the 
corps  of  horse  is  very  small  in  comparison  with  the  other 
corps  of  the  army,  these  duties  have  been  very  severe. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  add,  that  the  regular  staff 
officers,  Lieutenant  Oakes,  as  adjutant,  and  Lieutenant 
Tree,  as  quartermaster,  have  rendered  important  services, 
and  I  am  much  indebted  to  them  for  their  zeal  and  energy. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

E.  V.  SUMNER, 
Major  2d  Dragoons,  Covig. 

Lieutenant  Wm.  Steele, 

Act.  Adj.  Gen.,  Cav.  Brig. 

About  eight  o'clock  a.  m.  of  the  same  day  Churubusco 


234  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

was  attacked,  and  after  proper  dispositions  the  tete  du  pont 
was  carried  by  storm,  with  the  outworks  and  forts  which 
covered  and  defended  it.  At  San  Pablo,  which  was  the 
citadel  of  Churubusco,  was  posted  a  company  of  American 
deserters,  who  were  organized  in  the  name  of  St.  Patrick's, 
and  were  commanded  by  a  deserter  named  Riley.  They 
fought  desperately  and  with  great  skill.  There  were  of 
them  about  one  hundred,  and  expecting  neither  quarter 
nor  mercy,  they  made  great  havoc  among  the  assailing 
party.  They  would  not  only  not  surrender,  but  when  the 
Mexicans  hung  out  the  white  flag,  they  pulled  it  down. 
San  Pablo  was  at  last  entered,  sword  in  hand,  and  the 
deserters  captured  at  their  guns.  The  whole  army  was 
engaged  on  this  day,  and  carried  the  enemy's  works  at  all 
points,  and  Colonel  Harney's  brave  dragoons,  commanded 
by  Captain  Kearney,  penetrated  to  the  very  gates  of  the 
city,  when  they  were  recalled. 

After  this  signal  victory,  propositions  were  made  for 
peace  ;  Mexican  commissioners  were  appointed,  and  inef- 
fectual efforts  were  made  by  Mr.  Trist,  the  agent  of  the 
United  States,  under  his  instructions  from  Washington,  for 
a  treaty  of  peace.  They  disagreed  about  the  cession  of 
the  southern  portion  of  New  Mexico  to  the  United  States 
by  way  of  indemnity.  The  negotiations  for  peace  delayed 
or  suspended  operations. 

On  the  7th  of  September,  General  Scott  made  a  recon- 
noissance  of  the  enemy's  defences  in  front  of  the  Tacubaya. 
He  had  established  his  headquarters  at  the  village  of  Tacu- 
baya, about  two  miles  and  a  half  from  the  city,  and  before 
him  lay  the  formidable  works  at  and  around  Chapultcpec. 
It  was  necessary  to  possess  himself  of  this  castle  before 
entering  the  city,  for  its  guns  covered  both  the  causeways 
by  which  it  was  entered  and  the  city  itself  Chapultcpec 
is  a  fortified  hill  of  porphyritic  rock,  and  was  occupied  at 
that  time  as  a  military  school.  At  the  base  of  the  hill  is 
Molino  del  Rey,  or  King's  Mill,  and  Casa  de  Mata,  another 


GENERAL  SCOTT  AT  THE  CITY  OF  MEXICO. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLIHOIS 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  23/ 

strong  work  of  massive  stone,  is  about  four  hundred  yards 
west  of  Molino  del  Rey,  and  in  a  straight  Hne  with  Chapul- 
tepec.     Molino  del  Rey  must  be  taken  first. 

Colonel  Harney  participated  in  the  assault  upon  the 
enemy's  works,  which  began  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing of  that  day.  At  one  time  the  Americans  were  re- 
pulsed, and  fell  back  under  the  cover  of  the  fire  from  Dun- 
can's battery.  The  battery  continued  firing  upon  one  point, 
on  the  enemy's  right  flank,  where  Colonel  Harney  could 
see  no  indications  of  an  enemy.  He  concluded  to  ride  for- 
ward alone  and  reconnoitre.  The  enemy  allowed  him  to 
approach  within  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  yards. 
Whereupon  he  wheeled  his  horse  and  retreated  at  a  square 
trot,  keeping  out  of  the  line  of  their  fire.  When  he  had 
reached  near  enough  his  own  lines,  his  brother  officers 
called  to  him  to  run  or  he  would  be  shot.  He  replied, 
"The  rascals  never  hit  anything  they  shoot  at."  They  did 
not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Mexican  officer  at  Cerro  Gordo, 
give  him  any  opportunity  of  saluting  them. 

Both  Casa  de  Mata  and  Molino  del  Rey  wt  ''e  taken  by 
assault,  leaving  the  castle  of  Chapultepec  alone  standing 
between  the  American  army  and  the  doomed  city.  Casa 
de  Mata  was  blown  up,  and  the  ammunition  and  stores  in 
Molino  del  Rey  were  destroyed,  and  General  Scott  pro- 
ceeded to  make  his  dispositions  for  the  final  attack  on  Cha- 
pultepec. 

Colonel  Harney  was  ordered  on  the  tenth  day  of  Sep- 
tember by  the  General-in-chief  to  proceed  with  the  2d  bat- 
talion of  cavalry  to  Mexicalcingo,  which  had  been  made  a 
depot  of  supplies,  to  take  command  of  the  troops  of  that 
place,  and  make  such  dispositions  as  would  protect  the 
depots  and  hospitals  collected  there  against  the  large  forces 
of  the  enemy  known  to  be  outside  the  city.  Colonel  Har- 
ney relieved  Lieutenant  Colonel  Bonham  of  the  12th.  infan- 
try, who  was  in  command  of  four  weak  companies  of  his 
own  regiment,  one  of  the  3d  and  one  of  the  7th  infantry. 


-J' 


LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 


not  more  than  three  hundred  effective  men,  to  which  Har- 
ney's battaHon  being  added  (about  two  hundred),  made  a 
force  of  not  more  than  five  hundred.  Colonel  Harney 
made  the  best  dispositions  in  his  power  by  arming  all  camp 
followers,  and  enlisting  teamsters  to  strengthen  his  forces. 
He  mounted  several  pieces  of  captured  artillery  and  pre- 
pared for  an  attack.  In  this  service  he  remained  during 
the  stirring  events  of  the  few  days  which  were  signalized 
by  the  storming  of  Chapultepec.  His  brigade  was,  in  the 
meantime,  engaged  in  the  arduous  and  perilous  business  of 
making  reconnoissances,  and  in  the  hard  fighting  which 
enabled  General  Scott  to  enter  in  triumph  the  ancient  city 
of  the  Montezumas.  Major  Sumner  commanded  during 
this  time  the  six  companies  of  the  second  dragoons,  which 
belonged  to  Colonel  Harney's  regiment,  serving  with  his 
brigade  of  cavalry.  It  was  a  sad  trial  to  the  gallant  soldier 
who  had  so  distinguished  himself  and  illustrated  his  sol- 
dierly qualities  at  Cerro  Gordo  to  be  kept  upon  such  incon- 
siderable duty,  while  new  battles  were  being  fought  and 
fresh  laurels  won.  The  habits  of  discipline  and  considera- 
tions of  duty  and  patriotism  forced  him  to  submit  and 
obey.  But  the  duty  to  which  he  was  assigned  demanded  a 
steady,  determined  and  able  officer. 

In  the  meantime,  pending  the  negotiations,  ineffectual  as 
they  proved,  between  Mr.  Trist  and  the  Mexican  commis- 
sioners, the  deserters  captured  at  San  Pablo  were  tried  by 
court-martial.  We  quote  from  Mansfield's  Mexican  War, 
page  280 : 

Desertion  in  the  face  of  an  enemy,  and  during  the  exist- 
ence of  actual  war,  has  been,  among  all  nations,  and  in  all 
time,  punished  with  death.  It  is  treason — disloyalty — in  its 
worst,  least  excusable,  and  most  dangerous  form.  Of  this 
crime,  were  "  the  companies  of  St.  Patrick  "  palpably  and 
undeniably  guilty.  They  had  fought  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Mexican  army,  at  the  batteries  of  Churubusco  ;  they  had 
fought  longest  and  hardest  against  those  very  colors  which 
they  had  sworn  to  defend  ;  they  were  deserters,  and   many 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  239 

of  them  were  taken  prisoners.  Soon  after  the  battles  of 
the  20th,  and  while  the  negotiations  were  pending,  tiventy- 
nine  of  these  men  were  tried  by  a  general  court-martial,  of 
which  Colonel  Riley  of  the  2d  infantry  was  president.  The 
court  found  these  men  guilty,  (two-thirds  of  the  whole 
court  concurring  in  each  several  case,)  and  sentenced  each 
one  of  them  to  hang  by  the  neck  till  dead.  In  a  general 
order,  dated  the  8th  of  September,  General  Scott  approved 
the  sentence,  with  the  exception  of  three,  who  had  deserted 
previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  war,  and  two  others, 
who  were  recommended  to  favor  by  the  court;  and  four,  in 
whose  palliation  there  appeared  some  mitigating  circum- 
stances. The  remainder  were  executed  according  to  the 
sentence.  Sixteen  were  executed  at  San  Angel,  on  the  loth 
of  September.  Six  of  the  whole  number  tried  were 
deserters  from  the  3d  infantry,  three  from  the  5th  infantry, 
foio'  from  the  7th  infantry,  two  from  the  2d  infantry,  Jive 
from  the  3d  artillery,  six  from  the  4th  artillery,  one  from 
the  1st  artillery,  and  tzvo  frcm  the  2d  dragoons.  General 
Scott,  in  examining  the  proceedings  of  the  court,  appears 
to  have  released  every  man  from  the  penalty  of  death,  in 
whose  favor  any  reason  or  mitigation  could  be  pleaded. 
Among  the  three  whom  he  found  were  not  legally  subject 
to  the  penalty  of  death,  because  they  had  deserted  pre- 
vious to  the  commencement  of  the  war,  was  the  notorious 
Riley,  the  commander  of  the  deserters'  company.  His 
sentence  was  commuted,  so  thiat  he  was  lashed  and 
branded.  The  lesson  given  by  this  terrible  execution  was 
undoubtedly  a  severe  one,  but  one  which  war  necessarily 
carries  with  it,  and  without  which  the  discipline  of  the  army 
could  not  be  maintained. 

The  unpleasant  duty  of  hanging  the  twenty  doomed 
men  devolved  on  General  Harney,  while  he  was  detached 
from  his  brigade  in  command  of  Mexicalcingo.  The  hour 
appointed  for  their  execution,  was  during  the  last  day's 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  that  important  and  last 
Mexican  stronghold.  The  place  of  execution  was  in  sight 
of  the  castle,  and  where  they  could  see  and  hear  the  ter- 
rible struggle.  Seeing  the  place  would  soon  fall,  he  ordered 
the  execution  delayed  until  the  condemned  deserters  should 


240  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

see  the  Mexican  flag  come  down  and  the  American  colors 
run  up.  The  prisoners,  hearing  him  give  this  order,  raised 
a  shout,  because  few  beHeved  Chapultepec  pregnable, 
or  that  it  could  be  taken.  He  had  but  a  few  moments 
to  wait,  for  suddenly  the  firing  ceased,  and  the  stars  and 
stripes  arose  where  the  Mexican  colors  had  just  struck. 

While  at  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  before  the  American 
army  entered  within  the  gates.  Colonel  Harney  sent  Captain 
Kearney,  with  two  companies,  to  make  a  reconnoissance. 
Soon  ascertaining  that  Captain  Kearney  was  going  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  safety,  Colonel  Harney  sent  his  aid-de- 
camp. Captain  May,  to  tell  Captain  Kearney  to  return,  that 
danger  was  just  in  the  distance.  After  Captain  May  had 
gone  Colonel  Harney,  supposing  it  possible  that  Kearney 
would  not  obey  the  order,  at  once  sent  his  orderly,  a  Mr. 
Donovan,  with  peremptory  orders  for  Captain  Kearney 
to  return.  When  Mr.  Donovan  arrived  near  the  gate 
of  San  Antonia,  or  gate  of  Santa  Anna,  he  was  seized  upon 
by  Mexican  officers,  who  hastily  came  out  of  the  gate  to 
kill  him.  In  this  moment  of  peril,  Donovan's  horse  was  shot, 
fell  on  him,  and  he  himself  was  about  to  become  a  victim 
of  the  enemy.  A  Mexican  officer  approached  on  horse- 
back, and  asked  him  (Donovan)  if  he  was  an  officer.  Dono- 
van replied:  "  I  am  Colonel  Harney's  orderly."  The  officer, 
who  was  the  son  of  an  ex-Mexican  Minister  to  Washington 
City,  while  a  boy  and  in  the  American  capital  with  his 
father,  made  the  acquaintance  of  Colonel  Harney,  and  held 
him  in  high  esteem,  told  Donovan  he  knew  Colonel  Har- 
ney, and  for  his  high  regard  for  Harney,  at  once  rescued 
the  orderly  from  death  by  the  hands  of  the  Me.xican 
officers,  who  came  from  within  the  gates.  The  Mexican 
officer,  seeing  the  perilous  condition  of  the  orderly,  told 
him  to  get  upon  his  horse  behind  him.  The  orderly  did  so, 
and  offered  the  Mexican  officer  his  sword,  in  conformity  to 
the  duty  of  a  captive  to  a  victor.  The  officer  said  :  "  No  ! 
keep  the  sword  and  help  to  defend  yourself, "  in  the  mean- 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  24 1 

time  hastening  away  with  Donovan  to  a  place  of  safety. 
He  was  taken  to  the  headquarters  of  the  Mexican  army, 
and  his  life  preserved.  During  his  stay  at  the  headquarters 
Donovan  was  offered  different  commissions  in  the  Mexican 
army,  but  declined  all  of  them,  preferring  to  remain  an 
American  citizen.  Captain  Kearney  lost  an  arm  while 
indulging  in  rashness,  and  then  hastily  sought  safety  within 
the  lines  of  his  own  people.  In  this  instance,  Donovan 
found  Harney's  name  as  potential  in  the  hour  of  peril,  in 
the  last  trial  of  life,  as  did  Croesus  the  name  of  Solon 
when  the  officers  of  the  army  of  Cyrus  had  him  placed 
upon  the  funeral  pile  and  the  torch  applied. 

On  the  1 8th  day  of  September,  the  American  army  en- 
tered the  City  of  Mexico,  and  General  Harney,  although 
not  relieved  from  the  command  that  exiled  him  from  the 
storming  of  Chapultepec,  placed  his  next  senior  officer  in 
command  and  entered  the  city  with  the  victorious  army. 
He  reported  the  fact  to  General  Scott,  who  said  that  the 
occasion  was  so  propitious,  and  the  duty  assigned  to  Col- 
onel Harney  so  important,  that  he  wanted  him  to  hurry 
back  and  give  his  personal  attention  to  the  charge  com- 
mitted to  his  care. 

At  the  City  of  Mexico  Colonel  Harney  found  quarters, 
and  occupied  the  palace  where  the  late  emperor  Iturbide 
had  been  crowned.  Iturbide  was  the  lineal  descendant  of 
Hernando  Cortez,  the  first  conqueror  of  Mexico,  by  Mari- 
amser,  a  native  Aztec,  and  likewise  a  descendant  of  Monte- 
zuma. The  palace  was  most  luxuriously  furnished  and 
indicated  the  luxury  and  taste  of  the  early  Aztec  race. 
While  here  he  resumed  command  of  his  brigade,  and  on 
one  occasion,  while  he  was  dining,  there  were  brought  to 
him  some  Mexicans  who  had  been  caught  in  an  attempt  to 
outrage  the  Mexican  wife  of  a  Mr.  Hall,  whose  services 
had  been  valuable  to  him.  At  that  time  the  Mexicans, 
from  a  feeling  of  jealousy,  were  disposed  to  persecute  all 
the  Mexican  women  who  had  married  or  cohabited  with 


242  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

American  soldiers.  Without  thinking,  supposing  it  was  a 
case  where  the  gringoes,  or  Mexican  outlaws,  were  venting 
their  spite  on  a  weak  and  defenceless  woman,  he  directed 
the  soldiers  who  brought  in  the  prisoners  to  dispose  of 
them.  The  disposition  the  soldiers  made  of  them  was  to 
whip  them  without  ceremony,  and  with  short  shrift.  But 
it  was,  unfortunately,  the  fact  that  they  were  French  sub- 
jects, and  not  Mexicans,  and  the  French  Consul  and  French 
Minister  made  complaints  to  General  Scott  and  the  Gov- 
ernment at  Washington,  which  was  the  occasion  of  a  severe 
reprimand  from  President  Polk,  and  more  than  all,  of  great 
regrets  to  himself,  for  the  Colonel  was  always  a  great  ad- 
mirer and  friend  of  the  French — he  has  married  his  two 
daughters  to  French  gentlemen,  one  of  them  to  the  Count 
de  "Noue,  and  the  other  to  the  Viscount  de  Thury, 
who  served  in  the  late  war  with  the  Mexicans  under  Maxi- 
milian. 

The  following  order  of  reprimand  was,  by  order  of  the 
President,  sent  to  Colonel  Harn»y,  by  the  Secretary  of 
War: 

War  Department,  Washington,  \ 
December  ii,  1848.  j 
Sir  :  The  Government  of  the  French  Republic  has  com- 
plained against  you,  through  their  Minister  in  the  United 
States,  for  having  caused  a  degrading  punishment  to  be 
inflicted  in  a  summary  manner,  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  on 
the  26th  of  October,  1847,  upon  Marie  Courtine,  a  French 
citizen,  for  an  alleged  civil  offence,  upon  the  statement  of 
the  party  aggrieved,  without  trial  and  without  having  heard 
what  the  accused  had  to  say  in  his  defence.  Your  expla- 
nations have  been  submitted  to  the  President,  and  whilst  he 
feels  that  there  was  cause  for  your  indignation  against  the 
conduct  of  Courtine  for  outrages  committed  by  him  upon 
the  person  of  Mrs.  Hall,  the  wife  of  an  American  citizen,  yet 
you  ought  not  to  have  forgotten  that  you  had  no  jurisdic- 
tion whatever  over  the  offence,  and  that  every  man  is 
entitled  to  a  hearing  and  fair  trial  before  punisliment. 
Your  proper  course  would   have  been  to  refer   the  party 


THE   MEXICAN  WAR.  243 

aggrieved  to  the  Civil  Governor  of  Mexico  for  redress. 
The  President  cannot,  therefore,  but  view  your  conduct 
in  causing  Courtine  to  be  whipped,  and  more  especially  as 
this  was  done  not  at  your  own  discretion,  but  at  the  mercy 
of  the  injured  husband,  as  worthy  of  censure.  Of  this  act 
the  French  Government  have  a  just  right  to  complain,  and 
it  was  well  calculated  to  impair  the  cherished  friendship 
which  the  President  desires  shall  ever  exist  between  the 
two  Republics, 

It  is  true  that  at  the  time  when  this  punishment  was 
inflicted,  you  did  not  know  that  Courtine  was  a  Frenchman ; 
and  from  what  you  state  of  your  feelings  of  just  regard  for 
that  distinguished  nation,  it  is  almost  certain  that  had  you 
possessed  this  knowledge,  you  would  not  have  suffered  him 
to  be  punished  without  trial.  But  your  ignorance  upon 
this  subject  was  occasioned  by  your  omission  to  hear  the 
accused,  and  by  your  having  summarily  delivered  him  and 
his  companion  over  to  Mr.  Hall  and  the  guard  in  whose 
custody  he  was,  with  the  declaration  that  "  there  is  my 
back  yard,  you  can  take  them  in  and  do  with  them  what 
you  please,  I  shall  not  interfere.  " 

It  is  painful  to  the  President  to  censure  the  conduct  of 
a  gallant  and  meritorious  officer  like  yourself;  but  a  sense 
of  what  is  due  to  justice  and  to  the  French  nation  requires 
this  at  his  hands. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  L.  MARCY, 
Secretary  of  War, 

Brevet  Brigadier-General  W.  S.  Harney,  U.  S.  Army. 

Shortly  after  the  capture  of  Mexico,  Colonel  Harney  was, 
in  October,  1847,  ordered  as  bearer  of  dispatches  to  Wash- 
ington. On  his  way  to  Vera  Cruz  he  was  assigned  the 
duty  of  commanding  a  force  in  convoy  of  a  train  of  treas- 
ure. Among  the  friends  who  accompanied  him  to  Vera 
Cruz  was  Captain  Cassius  M.  Claiy,  who  had  been  a  pris- 
oner with  the  Mexicans  since  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista. 
Captain  Clay  had  been  released  from  his  captivity  along 
with  Major  John  P.  Gaines  by  an  honorable  exchange. 
The    friendship    theretofore   existing    between    them   was 


244  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Strengthened  and  consolidated  on  this  journey.  It  was  a 
tedious  trip,  for  in  passing  over  the  mountains  the  train 
was  so  long  that  the  last  wagon  camped  at  night  where  the 
first  one  had  camped  the  night  before.  He  arrived  at  Vera 
Cruz  in  due  time  and  embarked  for  the  States. 

On  his  way  to  Washington  he  was  very  near  being  the 
victim  of  an  ovation  at  New  Orleans,  the  citizens  of  which 
place  had  testified  their  admiration  of  his  courage  after  the 
battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  by  the  present  of  a  horse.  He  man- 
aged to  elude  their  hospitable  demonstration  and  avoid  the 
hero  worship  they  designed  for  him,  for  it  was  repugnant 
to  the  modesty  of  the  soldier,  as  well  as  the  sensibility  of 
the  gentleman.  But  at  Saint  Louis,  where  his  family  and 
friends  lived,  he  was  surprised  by  an  ovation  which  was 
gratifying  at  the  same  time  it  was  annoying.  A  coach  with 
six  white  horses  drew  up  to  his  residence ;  he  was  cap- 
tured and  carried  in  state  to  the  People's  Theatre,  then 
situated  where  the  present  old  Custom-house  is  now, 
southeast  corner  of  Third  and  Olive  streets,  and  in  a  pri- 
vate box  exposed  to  the  admiration  of  the  thronged  audi- 
ence which  filled  the  pit,  the  galleries  and  boxes,  attracted 
there  that  night  more  to  see  the  hero  of  Cerro  Gordo  than 
to  see  the  play. 

At  Philadelphia,  subsequently,  he  arrived  at  a  time  when 
the  returned  volunteers  from  Mexico  were  having  a  cel- 
ebration, and  although  he  avoided  all  demonstration,  his 
hotel  was  besieged  by  large  crowds  of  people,  who  were 
packed  in  the  streets  for  two  squares.  He  was  talking  to 
some  ladies  on  the  balcony  at  the  time  of  this  demonstra- 
tion, unsuspicious  that  he  was  the  object  and  cause  of  the 
assemblage,  till  his  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  of  the 
frequent  mention  of  his  name.  He  withdrew  to  his  room, 
and  resisted  all  importunities  to  show  himself  to  the  crowd. 
They  even  came  to  his  room,  and  were  very  near  breaking 
open  his  doors.  Like  Coriolanus,  he  was  a  soldier  and 
unfitted  for  the  immodest  arts  of  the  demagogue,  unwilling 


THE  MEXICAN  WAR.  245 

to  parade  his  honorable  scars  to  the  applause  of  the  pop- 
ulace. 

A  noteworthy  fact,  which  shows  something  of  the  inside 
character  and  humanity  of  General  Harney,  is  related  in 
reference  to  a  matter  connected  with  some  soldiers  in  the 
City  of  ]\Iexico.  When  the  United  States  army  entered 
the  city,  and  peace  negotiations  were  going  on,  many  of 
our  soldiers  won  the  esteem  and  love  of  elegant  and  refined 
women ;  matrimonial  alliances  were  formed,  and  when 
peace  was  declared  and  the  American  army  was  ordered 
to  vacate  the  city  and  return  home,  these  soldiers,  who  had 
won  the  love  of  the  Castilian  maidens,  holding  that  they 
had  served  their  country  faithfully  and  helped  to  v/in  the 
honors  of  a  conquest,  were  entitled  to  remain  in  Mexico 
with  their  loves.  Acting  upon  this  view  of  the  case,  trou- 
ble was  about  to  ensue  by  declaring  these  soldiers  to  be 
deserters.  Colonel  Harney,  knowing  the  facts,  reported 
them  to  the  President  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  Washing- 
ton, and  entreated  the  President  to  allow  the  soldiers  to 
remain  in  Mexico  and  marry  as  each  desired.  The  Presi- 
dent approved  Colonel  Harney's  views  of  the  matter  and 
ordered  that  the  soldiers  be  relieved  and  remain  with  their 
loves. 

The  conduct  of  Colonel  Harney  in  this  matter  cannot 
fail  to  meet  the  approval  of  the  best  judgment  of  the 
people  and  entitle  him  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  those  di- 
rectlv  concerned. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  SIOUX  EXPEDITION. 

/^7\FTER  his  arduous  service  in  the  Mexican  war,  and 
H^  on  the  restoration  of  peace,  by  the  treaty  of  Guada- 
loupe,  Brevet  Brigadier  General  Harney  was  ordered 
to  the  command  of  his  regiment,  the  Second  Dragoons,  on 
the  frontier  of  the  eighth  department.  His  head-quarters 
were  at  San  Antonio,  and  while  there  he  made  the  acquain- 
tance of  the  son  of  Audubon,  the  celebrated  American  nat- 
uralist. The  young  gentleman  was  collecting  specimens  of 
the  fauna  of  the  United  States.  He  had  collected  nearly  all 
his  specimens,  and  wanted  only  one  more,  a  specimen  of 
the  leopard  family,  which  was  very  rare,  and  which  he  had 
been  unable  to  procure.  The  Ge'neral  was  never  without 
his  pack  of  hounds,  and  undertook  to  find  one  for  him. 
He  sallied  out  the  next  morning  with  his  dogs,  and  by 
great  good  fortune  they  treed  an  animal,  of  which  the  Gen- 
eral could  only  see  the  head.  It  occupied  a  position  in  a 
live  oak  tree,  near  the  San  Antonio  spring,  which  rendered 
it  impossible  to  shoot  it,  except  in  the  small  portion  ex- 
posed. Drawing  a  bead  with  his  rifle,  he  delivered  one  fire, 
as  he  supposed  at  first,  without  effect.  The  animal  kept 
his  position  without  moving  a  muscle,  and  he  supposed  he 
had  missed  it,  but  as  he  was  preparing  to  give  it  another 
trial,  with  a  {q\w  convulsive  motions  the  strange  beast  tum- 
bled dead  out  of  the  tree.  It  proved  to  be  what  the  nat- 
uralist wanted  to  make  his  collection  complete,  and  Gen- 
eral Harney  presented  Audubon  with  its  skin. 

General  Harney  served  in  Texas,  with  occasional  de- 
tached service  and  short  leaves  of  absence,  until  August, 
1852,  when  he  was  relieved  b)-  General  Persifer  Smith,  an 

246 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  247 

officer  with  whom  he  had  seen  much  service,  and  to  whom 
he  was  much  attached.  He  was  then  granted  a  leave  of 
absence  to  December  9,  1852,  when  he  was  ordered  again  to 
take  command  of  the  eighth  mihtary  department  in  Texas, 
with  head-quarters  at  Austin,  where  he  remained  until 
May,  1853,  when  he  was  absent  again  on  leave  to  Decem- 
ber, 1 85 3,  at  which  time  he  resumed  command  of  the  Sec- 
ond Dragoons  until  July  20,  1854.  This  long  and  arduous 
service  on  the  frontier  induced  the  Government  to  grant 
him,  at  his  request,  leave  of  absence  for  two  years,  that  he 
might  visit  Europe,  and  spend  some  time  with  his  family. 
Mrs.  Harney,  with  her  daughters,  had  resided  for  some 
time  in  Paris,  and  their  only  son,  John  M.,  was  in  feeble 
health,  and  it  was  hoped  that  travel  and  change  of  climate 
would  benefit  him.  The  condition  of  the  young  man  was 
such  as  to  cause  great  solicitude  to  his  parents,  and  Gen- 
eral Harney  had  hopes  of  spending  his  long  leave  in  the 
society  of  his  family.  But  in  the  fall  of  1854  he  received 
at  Paris  the  following  order  to  return  and  take  command 
of  an  expedition  against  the  Sioux  Indians,  who  were 
making  hostile  demonstrations  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska : 

Adjutant   General's    Office,  \ 

Washington,  Oct.  26,  1854.    j 

Sir  :  I  am  instructed  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  inform 
you  that  an  expedition  will  be  organized  this  winter  to 
operate  against  the  Sioux  Indians  as  early  as  possible  next 
spring.  Four  companies  of  your  regiment  will  form  a  part 
of  this  expedition,  and  it  is  the  intention  of  the  Secretary 
of  War  to  place  you  in  command  of  the  troops,  if  you 
should  be  in  position  in  season.  The  expedition  will  be 
put  in  motion  as  soon  as  the  navigation  of  the  Missouri 
river  opens  in  the  spring,  and  it  is  important  that  the  officer 
who  is  to  comm^and  should  be  at  St.  Louis  by  the  first  ot 
February  next,  in  order  to  make  timely  preparations  for  the 
movement. 

The  Secretary  of  War  desires  that  you  will  make  your 
arrangements  to  be  at  St.  Louis  at  the  time  above  indicated. 


248  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

and  that  if  anything  should  occur  to  prev^ent  your  doing 
this,  that  you  will  report  the  fact  as  soon  as  possible,  as  it 
will  then  be  necessary  to  designate  some  other  officer  for 
the  command. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

S.  COOPER, 
Adjutant  General. 
Brevet  Brigadier-General  W.  S.  Harney, 

Colonel  2d  Dragoons. 

General  Harney  at  once  set  out  for  the  United  States, 
leaving  Paris  on  Christmas  eve,  1854,  and  after  a  pros- 
perous voyage,  reported  to  the  Department  at  Washington. 
On  his  arrival,  President  Pierce  sent  for  him,  to  whom  Col- 
onel Harney  complained  he  had  not  been  allowed  to  enjoy 
the  leave  of  absence  granted  him.  The  President  frankly 
said  to  him :  "  General  Harney,  you  have  done  so  much 
that  I  will  not  order  you,  but  I  do  wish  you  would  consent 
to  assume  the  command  and  whip  the  Indians  for  us." 
General  Harney  accepted  the  command,  and  repaired  to 
St.  Louis,  and  thence  to  Fort  Leavenworth,  where  he  made 
his  preparations  for  the  expedition.  He  took  four  com- 
panies of  dragoons,  a  portion  of  the  6th  infantr}%  and  one 
company  of  mounted  artillery.  He  expected  a  general 
Indian  war,  with  the  whole  of  the  powerful  Sioux  tribes. 

Late  in  the  fall  he  marched  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  by 
the  California  road,  crossed  the  South  Platte,  and  thence 
moved  across  the  North  Platte,  and  took  position  at  a  high 
point  known  as  Ash  Hollow,  so  called  from  a  growth  of  ash 
wood  in  the  vicinity. 

Although  General  Harney  had  long  ago  demonstrated, 
by  years  of  arduous  labor,  that  he  was  the  most  distin- 
guished Indian  fighter  belonging  to  the  American  army,  it 
was  the  impression  at  the  War  office  and  at  Fort  Leaven- 
worth that  his  command  was  not  sufficiently  strong  to  go 
with  safety  into  the  heart  of  the  Indian  country,  where  hos- 
tile bands  were  expected  to  be  encountered  on  all  sides. 
The    Government   therefore   ordered    General    Sumner   to 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  249 

move  with  a  force  from  Fort  Leavenworth  and  support 
General  Harney.  Sumner  soon  followed,  but  did  not  go  far, 
when  he  turned  about  and  took  his  command  back  to  Fort 
Leavenworth,  where  he  went  into  winter  quarters,  leaving 
Harney  to  prosecute  the  Indian  campaign  the  best  he 
could.  This  conduct  enraged  General  Harney,  and  in  due 
time  he  had  Sumner  arraigned  for  trial  under  the  laws  of 
war.  This  led  to  trouble  between  Harney  and  Sumner, 
which,  no  doubt,  was  the  culmination  of  an  unfriendly  feel- 
ing engendered  in  the  Mexican  war  through  the  partiality 
of  General  Scott  toward  General  Sumner.  Sumner  was 
not  relieved  from  the  stain  of  his  unprofessional  and  ungal- 
lant  conduct  toward  Harney  in  abandoning  him  in  the 
enemy's  country.  On  the  other  hand,  Harney  made  a  per- 
ilous, but  victorious  and  triumphant  campaign  and  won 
thereby  personal  as  well  as  national  honors  from  Sumner, 
by  courageous  manhood  and  duty  done. 

It  is  proper  to  look  a  little  into  the  causes  of  the  Indian 
war.  It  will  always  be  found  that  the  Indians  have  never 
been  entirely  at  fault,  and  although  they  were  always  sav- 
age and  cruel  in  war,  they  have  usually  been  provoked  by 
injustice,  fraud  or  gross  wrong.  The  want  of  sagacity  in 
our  Government  has  greatly  prolonged  and  brutalized  the 
Indian  wars.  They  have  unfortunately  made  our  civiliza- 
tion odious,  and  if  our  Indian  history  could  be  written  by 
the  Indians  themselves,  perhaps  impartial  posterity  would 
do  them  the  tardy  justice  their  more  powerful  Christian 
cotemporaries  have  denied. 

Some  emigrants  to  California,  with  their  cattle  and 
household  goods,  had  passed  the  Big  Platte,  some  thirty 
miles  below  Fort  Laramie.  One  of  their  cows  gave  out, 
and  they  left  it  with  the  Bois  Brule  Indians.  The  Indians 
took  charge  of  it.  Shortly  after,  an  Ogallala  chief  paid 
the  Bois  Brules  a  visit.  The  accustomed  hospitality  of  the 
nomadic  tribes  of  America  demanded  of  his  hosts  that  they 
should  offer  him  somethincj  to  eat.     The  Bois  Brules  were 


250  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

unfortunately  on  very  short  rations,  and  could  offer  but  slim 
accommodations  in  the  way  of  a  feast.  The  honest  sav- 
ages had  allowed  the  white  man's  cow  to  fatten  on  the 
grass  and  recover  her  strength,  and  the  temptations  of 
almost  starvation,  in  the  absence  of  buffalo  and  the  always 
insufficient  supplies  furnished  by  the  rascally  agent  and 
contractor,  had  never  tempted  them  to  violate  the  sanctity 
of  the  white  man's  sacred  trust.  But  the  Ogallala  chief 
was  a  guest,  and  in  the  absence  of  any  material  for  a  feast, 
they  apologized  for  their  seeming  want  of  hospitality  by 
explaining  that  they  had  nothing  to  eat.  The  Ogallala 
chief  remarked  that  he  had  seen  a  white  buffalo  (the  Indian 
name  for  a  cow)  on  the  prairie.  The  Bois  Brules  explained 
that  the  cow  belonged  to  the  white  people  and  that  they 
never  disturbed  their  cattle.  The  Ogallala  chief  and  his 
warriors  took  in  the  situation  and  soon  went  out  on  a  hunt. 
They  brought  in  the  white  buffalo  and  had  a  feast.  The 
emigrant  who  owned  the  cow  heard  that  it  had  been  killed, 
and  made  out  a  bill  for  it,  which  was  paid  by  the  officer  in 
command  at  Fort  Laramie.  The  officer  then  sent  out 
Lieut.  Grattan,  with  thirty  soldiers,  to  the  Bois  Brules  to 
briitg  the  warrior  who  had  killed  the  cow  into  the  fort.  The 
Lieutenant,  with  his  men,  went  to  the  village.  The  soldiers 
were  drunk,  and  on  reaching  the  village  they  demanded  of 
Black  Beaver,  the  chief  of  the  Bois  Brules,  the  man  who 
had  killed  the  cow.  Of  course  they  would  not  surrender 
up  their  guest.  Black  Beaver  said,  "  I  cannot  give  up  our 
guest,  but  he  has  behaved  badly  and  you  can  take  him ; 
he  is  in  that  lodge.  I  will  not  deliver  him  ;  it  is  against 
our  laws  and  customs.  They  would  kill  me  if  I  gave  him 
up."  The  Lieutenant  replied,  "  No,  you  must  bring  him 
here."  Black  Beaver  replied,  "No,  it  is  against  our  rules, 
and  I  would  rather  be  killed  by  you  than  by  my  own  people 
for  violating  the  duty  of  hospitality."  Then  the  drunken 
Lieutenant  ordered  his  men  to  fire.  In  the  meantime,  the 
Indians  who  saw  the   Lieutenant   talking  with  their  chief, 


THE  SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  2$  I 

prepared  for  battle.  Black  Beaver  was  killed,  and  no 
sooner  had  the  whites  discharged  the  first  volley  than  the 
Indians  opened  on  them  and  killed  the  Lieutenant,  his  in- 
terpreter and  all  his  detachment  but  one  man.  After  this 
affair  darkness  came  on,  and  an  Indian  warrior,  walking 
over  the  scene  of  carnage,  found  one  soldier  still  alive, 
whom  he  took  into  his  lodge  and  nursed  till  he  got  well. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  an  Indian  war,  the  occasion  be- 
ing the  gross  wrong  and  fault  of  the  commander  of  the 
Americans. 

This  sad  occasion  is  worthy  a  thought.  The  savage  had 
his  custom,  born  of  his  honor  and  integrity.  It  was  the 
simple  conviction  and  expression  of  his  heart.  But  to  him 
it  was  as  sacred  and  worthy  of  regard  as  the  faith  of  the 
Christian  and  the  words  of  the  civilized  man.  The  Indian, 
in  his  native  home  and  depressed  in  his  poverty,  was  still 
true  to  the  customs  established  by  his  ancestors  and  made 
sacred  by  generations  of  usage.  The  white  man,  clothed 
with  superior  power,  but  less  of  the  heart,  enters  the  home, 
the  community  of  the  red  man  and  tramples  down  his  sa- 
cred customs  and  inhumanly  murders  his  directors  and 
rulers.  "  The  sacred  rights  of  mankind,"  said  Alexander 
Hamilton,  "  are  not  to  be  rummaged  for  among  old  parch- 
ments or  musty  records.  They  are  written  as  with  a  sun- 
beam in  the  whole  volume  of  human  nature,  by  the  hand  of 
the  divinity  itself,  and  can  never  be  erased  or  obscured  by 
mortal  power."  A  people  of  English  speech  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  lineage  should  remember,  in  passing  upon  these 
scenes,  that  custom  makes  the  common  law,  and  before 
they  have  one  word  of  condemnation  for  the  barbarian  of 
the  frontier,  consider  how  the  observance  of  custom  would 
have  been  their  own  perfect  protection. 
'  As  General  Harney  approached  the  Indian  country,  he 
received  a  message  from  Little  Thunder,  by  a  trader  named 
Vasquez.  Little  Thunder  said  he  would  fight  him  or  shake 
hands  with  him.     General  Harney  had  learned  about  the 


252  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

situation  of  the  Indians,  and  had  reached  a  position  com- 
manding their  village.  He  made  his  dispositions  for  an 
attack  before  daylight.  As  soon  as  the  Indians  discov- 
ered his  position,  Little  Thunder  mounted  his  pony  and 
rode  over  to  General  Harney's  camp.  He  offered  his  hand 
to  the  American  commander.  General  Harney  refused  his 
hand  and  told  him  he  came  for  a  fight,  that  his  men  had 
been  robbing  the  mails  and  killing  the  emigrants,  and  that 
he  intended  to  punish  them.  Little  Thunder  was  appre- 
hensive Harney  would  keep  him  prisoner  of  war,  but  he 
was  informed  he  could  go  back  to  his  people  and  prepare 
for  battle.  The  American  guns  were  superior,  and  made 
great  havoc  among  the  savages.  The  Indians  lost  seventy- 
two  men  before  the  Americans  lost  even  one !  The 
Indians  retreated  into  the  hollow,  and  placed  their  women 
and  children  for  safety  in  a  cave.  From  this  cave  there 
were  shot  some  arrows  against  the  Americans,  which 
wounded  some  white  men.  The  soldiers  fired  deadly 
volleys  into  the  cave,  but,  when  the  commander  ascer- 
tained that  there  were  only  women  and  children  in  the 
cave,  he  ordered  the  soldiers  to  cease  firing.  The  Indians 
were  soon  forced  to  retreat,  and  being  encumbered  with 
their  women  and  children,  General  Harney  allowed  them 
to  make  good  their  retreat.  The  ravine  could  only  be 
entered  from  either  end,  and  after  allowing  them  to  escape, 
there  was  a  running  fight,  in  which  three  dragoons  were 
killed. 

The   report  of  the  fight,  which  we  insert    entire,  gives 
a  detailed  account  that  will  be  of  interest  to  our  readers : 

report  of   general  harney,    commander  of   the    sioux 

expedition. 

Headquarters  Sioux  Expedition,  ^       , 

Camp  on  Blue  Water  Creek,  N.  T.,  V 
September  5,  1855.  j 

Colonel:  I  have  the  honor  to  report  for  the  information 
of  the  general-in-chief  that  on  my  arrival  at  Ash  Hollow, 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  255 

in  the  evening  of  the  2d  instant,  I  ascertained  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  Brule  band  of  the  Sioux  Nation,  under 
"  Little  Thunder,  "  was  encamped  on  Blue  Water  Creek, 
(Mee-na-to-wah-pah)  about  six  miles  northwest  of  Ash 
Hollow,  and  four  from  the  left  bank  of  the  North  Platte. 

Having  no  doubt,  from  the  information  I  had  received 
from  the  people  of  the  country  I  had  previously  met  on 
the  road,  and  from  the  guides  accompanying  me,  of  the 
real  character  and  hostile  intentions  of  the  party  in  question, 
I  at  once  commenced  preparations  for  attacking  it.  I 
ordered  Lieutenant  Colonel  P.  St.  George  Cooke,  2d  dra- 
goons, with  companies  "E"  and  "K"  of  the  same  regi- 
ment, light  company  "  G, "  4th  artillery,  and  company 
"  E,  "  loth  infantry,  all  mounted,  to  move  at  three  o'clock, 
A.  M.,  on  the  third  instant,  and  secure  a  position  which 
would  cut  off  the  retreat .  of  the  Indians  to  the  Sand 
Buttes,  the  reputed  stronghold  of  the  Brules.  This  move- 
ment was  executed  in  a  most  faultless  and  successful 
manner — not  apparently  having  attracted  the  notice  or 
excited  the  suspicion  of  the  enemy  up  to  the  very  moment 
of  the  encounter. 

At  4 :  30  o'clock,  A.  M.,  I  left  my  camp  with  companies 
"  A,  "  "  E,  "  "  H,  "  "  I,  "  and  "  K,  "  6th  infantry,  under  the 
immediate  command  of  Major  A.  Cady,  of  that  regiment, 
and  proceeded  towards  the  principal  village  of  the  Brules, 
with  a  view  to  attacking  it  openly  in  concert  with  the  sur- 
prise contemplated  through  the  cavalry.  But  before 
reaching  it,  the  lodges  were  struck,  and  their  occupants 
commenced  a  rapid  retreat  up  the  valley  of  the  Blue 
Water,  precisely  in  the  direction  from  whence  I  expected 
the  mounted  troops.  They  halted  short  of  these,  however, 
and  a  parley  ensued  between  the  chief  and  myself,  in 
which  I  stated  the  causes  of  dissatisfaction  which  the 
Government  had  towards  the  Brules,  and  closed  the 
interview  by  telling  him  that  his  people  had  depredated 
upon  and  insulted  our  citizens  whilst  moving  quietly 
through  our  country ;  that  they  had  massacred  our  troops 
under  the  most  aggravated  circumstances,  and  that  now  the 
day  of  retribution  had  come ;  that  I  did  not  wish  to  harm 
him  personally,  as  he  professed  to  be  a  friend  to  the  whites, 
but  that  he  must  either  deliver  up  the  young  men,  whom 


256  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

he  acknowledged  he  could  not  control,  or  they  must  suffer 
the  consequences  of  their  past  misconduct  and  take  the 
chances  of  battle.  Not  being  able,  of  course,  however 
willing  he  might  have  been,  to  deliver  up  all  the  butchers 
of  our  people,  "Little  Thunder"  returned  to  his  band  to 
warn  them  of  my  decision,  and  to  prepare  them  for  the 
contest  that  must  follow.  Immediately  after  his  disappear- 
ance from  my  view,  I  ordered  the  infantry  to  advance,  the 
leading  company  (Captain  Todd's)  as  skirmishers,  sup- 
ported by  company  "  H, "  6th  infantry  (under  Lieutenant 
IMcClear}'),  the  remaining  companies  of  the  6th  being  held 
in  hand  for  ulterior  movements.  The  skirmishers,  under 
Captain  Todd,  opened  their  fire,  crossed  the  bluffs  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  stream  (where  the  Indians  had  taken  up 
their  last  position)  in  a  very  spirited  and  gallant  manner, 
driving  the  savages  therefrom  into  the  snare  laid  for  them 
by  the  cavalry,  which  last  troops  burst  upon  them  so  sud- 
denly and  so  unexpectedly  as  to  cause  them  to  cross, 
instead  of  ascending  the  valley  of  the  Blue  Water  and 
seek  an  escape  through  the  only  avenue  now  left  open  to 
them,  through  the  bluffs  of  the  left  bank  of  that  stream. 
But  although  they  availed  themselves  of  this  outlet  from 
complete  capture,  they  did  not  do  so  without  serious  moles- 
tation, for  the  infantry  not  only  took  them  in  flank  with 
their  long-range  rifles,  but  the  cavalry  made  a  most  spirited 
charge  upon  their  opposite  or  left  flank  and  rear,  pursuing 
them  for  five  or  six  miles  over  a  very  rough  country,  killing  a 
large  number  of  them  and  completely  dispersing  the  whole 
party.  This  brilliant  charge  of  cavalry  was  supported,  as 
far  as  practicable,  by  the  whole  body  of  the  infantry,  who 
were  eager  from  the  first  for  a  fray  with  the  butchers  of 
their  comrades  of  Lieutenant  Grattan's  party. 

The  results  of  this  affair  were :  86  killed,  5  wounded, 
about  70  women  and  children  captured,  50  mules  and 
ponies  taken,  besides  an  indefinite  number  killed  and 
disabled.  The  amount  of  provisions  and  camp  equipage 
must   have  composed  nearly  all  the  enemy  possessed. 

The  casualties  of  the  command  amounted  to  4  killed,  4 
severely  wounded,  3  slightly  wounded,  and  l  missing,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  killed  or  captured  by  the  enemy. 
I    enclose    herewith    a    list  of  the  above,  and    also    field 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  257 

returns,  exhibiting  the  strength  of  the  troops  engaged  in 
the  combat. 

With  regard  to  the  officers  and  troops  of  my  command, 
I  have  never  seen  a  finer  military  spirit  displayed  generally  ; 
and  if  there  has  been  any  material  difference  in  the  services 
they  have  rendered  it  must  be  measured  chiefly  by  the 
opportunities  they  had  for  distinction.  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Cooke  and  Major  Cady,  the  commanders  of  the  mounted 
and  foot  forces,  respectively,  carried  out  my  instructions  to 
them  with  signal  alacrity,  zeal  and  intelligence.  The  com- 
pany commanders,  whose  position  either  in  the  engage- 
ment or  in  the  pursuit,  brought  them  in  closest  contact 
with  the  enemy,  were  Captain  Todd,  of  the  6th  infantry; 
Captain  Steele  and  Lieutenant  Robertson,  of  the  2d  dra- 
goons, and  Captain  Heth,  loth  infantry.  Captain  Howe 
and  his  Company  ("G,"  4th  artillery.)  participated  largely 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  engagement,  but  for  reasons  stated 
in  his  commander's  report,  he  took  no  active  part  in  the 
pursuit.  Brevet  Major  Woods,  Captain  Wharton  and  Lieu- 
tenant Patterson,  of  the  6th  infantry,  with  their  companies, 
rendered  effective  service  as  reserves  and  supports,  taking 
an  active  part  in  the  combat  when  circumstances  would 
permit.  Colonel  Cooke  notices  the  conduct  of  Lieutenants 
Buford  and  Wright,  regimental  quartermaster  and  adjutant 
of  the  2d  dragoons,  in  a  flattering  manner.  Lieutenants 
Drum,  Hudson  and  Mendenhall,  4th  artillery.  Lieutenants 
Hight  and  Livingston,  2d  dragoons,  and  Lieutenant  Dud- 
ley, loth  infantry,  gave  efficient  aid  to  their  company  and 
commanders. 

I  should  do  injustice  to  Mr.  Joseph  Tesson,  one  of  my 
guides,  were  I  to  omit  a  mention  of  his  eminently  valuable 
services  in  conducting  the  column  of  cavalry  to  its  position 
in  the  rear  of  the  Indian  village.  To  his  skill  as  a  guide, 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  character  and  habits  of  the 
enemy,  I  ascribe  much  of  the  success  gained  in  the  engage- 
ment. Mr.  Carsey,  also  chief  of  the  guides,  rendered  good 
service  in  transmitting  my  orders. 

The  members  of  my  personal  staff  rendered  me  most 
efficient  service  in  the  field.  Major  O.  F.  Winship,  assis- 
tant adjutant  general  and  chief  of  the  staff,  and  Lieutenant 
Polk,  2d  infantry,  my  aid-de-camp,  in  conveying  my  orders 


258  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

to  different  portions  of  the  command,  discharged  their  du- 
ties with  coolness^  zeal  and  energy.  Assistant  surgeon 
Ridgely,  of  the  medical  staff,  was  indefatigable  in  his  atten- 
tions to  the  suffering  wounded,  both  of  our  own  troops  and 
of  the  enemy.  Lieutenant  Warren,  topographical  engi- 
neers, was  most  actively  engaged,  previous  to  and  during 
the  combat,  reconnoitering  the  country  and  the  enemy, 
and  has  subsequently  made  a  sketch  of  the  former,  which  I 
enclose  herewith.  Captain  Van  Vliet,  assistant  quarter- 
master, was  charged  with  the  protection  of  the  train — a 
service  for  which  his  experience  on  the  plains  rendered  him 
eminently  qualified.  Lieutenant  Balch,  of  the  ordnance, 
was  also  left  in  charge  of  the  stores  of  his  department. 

I  enclose  herewith  several  papers  found  in  the  baggage 
of  the  Indians,  some  of  which  are  curiosities,  and  others 
may  serve  to  show  their  disposition  towards  the  whites. 
They  were  mostly  taken,  as  their  dates  and  marks  will 
indicate,  on  the  occasion  of  the  massacre  and  plunder 
of  the  mail  party  in  November  last.  There  are  also  in  the 
possession  of  officer^  and  others  in  camp  the  scalps  of  two 
white  females,  and  the  remnant  of  the  clothing,  etc.,  carried 
off  by  the  Indians  in  the  Grattan  massacre;  all  of  which,  in 
my  judgment,  sufficiently  characterize  the  people  I  have 
had  to  deal  with. 

I  am.  Colonel,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARXEY. 
BiTc'et  Bi'igadier  General,  &c. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  L.  Thomas, 

Ass  t  Adjutant  Gen  I,  Headquarters  of  the  Army,  N.  Y. 

,  Headquarters  of  the  Army, 

New  York,  Sept.  29,  1855. 
Respectfully  forwarded  to  the  Adjutant  General,  by  di- 
rection of  the  General-in-chief,  who  highly  approves  of  the 
conduct  of  Brevet  Brigadier  General  Harney  and  his  com- 
mand. '  L.  THOMAS, 

AssH  Adjutant  General. 

Respectfully  submitted  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

S.  COOPER. 
October  i,  1855.  Adjutant  General. 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION. 


259 


It  is  due  to  General  Harney's  horse,  "  Buncombe,"  to  say 
that,  after  his  return  from  the  Mexican  war.  General  Har- 
ney took  him  with  him  on  the  Sioux  expedition  in  1 85  5-6, 
and    such  was    the    remarkable    intelligence  of  the  horse 


GENERAL  HARNEY  AND  "  BUNCOMBE." 


that  while  on  duty  and  service  about  the  camp,  he  learned 
the  distinct  smell  of  the  buffalo,  the  wolf  and  the  Indian; 
and  during  the  night,  in  the  enemy's  country,  when  all 
had  gone  to  sleep  and  the  guard  were  ignorant  of  the  ap- 
proach of  an  enemy.  Buncombe  would  report,  and  whether 


260  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

there  be  wolf,  buffalo  or  Indian,  Buncombe  would  smell 
the  intruder  and  at  once  rise  to  his  feet  and  begin  to  snort 
and  stamp.  And  if  the  alarm  was  for  an  Indian,  Bun- 
combe would  stamp  harder  and  more  often  and  snort 
louder.  His  alarm  was  invariably  correct,  and  in  many- 
instances  the  lives  of  men  were  saved  by  his  signals.  After 
serving  his  master  well,  and  making  an  honorable  record 
for  himself,  he  was  retired,  and  in  the  quiet  of  life  he  be- 
came so  fat  that  he  died  without  a  pain  or  struggle. 

From  Ash  Hollow  General  Harney  moved  to  Fort  La- 
ramie. From  there  he  intended  to  enter  upon  a  general 
winter  campaign,  but  after  traveling  something  like  one 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  along  the  foot  of  the  Black  Hills, 
without  finding  any  Indians,  he  encamped  one  night  and 
there  fell  a  very  heavy  snow,  with  every  indication  of  severe 
weather.  The  General  endeavored  after  the  snow  to  find 
the  traces  of  Indians,  which,  being  unable  to  discover,  he 
moved  with  his  command  to  old  Fort  Pierre,  where  he 
wintered. 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  campaign,  the  engineers,  taking 
notes  of  the  country,  found  one  mountainous  formation 
much  superior  to  any  other  in  that  region.  Upon  this 
they  conferred  the  name  of  their  commander  and  called  it 
Harney's  Peak,  This  peak  is  1665  feet  in  height,  and  the 
name  thus  given  is  recognized  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment, and  placed  upon  its  official  maps.  When,  in  1874, 
the  United  States  surveying  expedition,  under  the  escort 
of  General  Custar,  entered  that  region  and  arrived  at  Har- 
ney's Peak,  General  Custar  and  his  staff"  alighted  from  their 
horses  under  the  shadow  of  the  mountain,  fired  a  salute, 
and  drank  a  health  to  General  Harney,  the  chieftain  who 
had  long  gone  before  with  the  sword  and  the  axe,  and 
marked  out  a  path  in  the  wilderness,  and  given  a  name  to 
hi  itory  and  science. 

During  this  winter  he  sent  word  to  the  chiefs  of  all  the 
hostile  tribes  and   wished  them  to  meet  him  in  the  spring. 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  26l 

They  accordingly  came  in,  Little  Thunder  among  them, 
— all  except  one  band — and  held  a  council  on  some  logs 
lying  around  the  Fort.  Harney  made  the  first  speech, 
laying  down  the  terms  of  peace.  The  chiefs  made 
speeches,  and  the  conference  resulted  in  a  treaty. 

The  chiefs  met  General  Harney  at  Fort  Pierre,  and  the 
conference  between  him  and  the  chiefs  commenced  on 
the  first  day  of  March,  1856,  The  Fort  and  other  im- 
provements were  very  limited  in  their  accommodations, 
and  the  conference  was  held  in  the  open  air,  the  contract- 
ing parties  usually  sitting  on  logs.  General  Harney  made 
the  first  speech.  He  arose  and  stood  erect  before  the  sav- 
age warriors  with  a  self-conscious  majesty  as  Cineas,  the 
Thessalian  minister,  stood  before  the  Senators  of  Rome, 
and  contended  for  the  peace  of  the  world. 

The  conference  continued  five  days.  Minutes  were  kept 
of  the  entire  proceedings,  and  at  the  close  were  forwarded 
to  Washington.  On  arriving  at  the  war  office,  they  were 
referred  by  Jefferson  Davis,  Secretary  of  War,  to  the  Pres- 
ident, and  President  Pierce  referred  the  minutes  and  treaty 
to  Congress  for  approval  on  the  24th  of  July,  1856. 

The  following  is  General  Harney's  report  of  the  council 
to  Hon.  Jefferson  Davis,  Secretary  of  War.  It  shows  his 
good  sense  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Indian  char- 
acter, and  if  his  suggestions  and  arrangements  had  been 
faithfully  carried  out  by  the  Government,  much  subsequent 
trouble  could  have  been  avoided: 

Head-quarters  Sioux  Expedition, 

Fort  Pierre,  N.  T.,  March  8,  18^6. 
I  have  the  honor  to  enclose  "the  minutes  of  the  council" 
between  myself  and  the  different  delegations  of  the  Sioux, 
which  convened  at  this  place  on  the  1st  and  closed  on  the 
5  th  instant. 

The  Sioux  nation  of  the  Platte  and  Missouri  rivers,  with 
the  exception  of  Big  Head's  band  of  Yanctonnais  and  the 
Ogallala    band,    were    represented    in    this    council.     The 


262  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Ogallalas  were  prevented  from  coming  by  the  Indian  agent 
at  Fort  Laramie,  Mr.  Thomas  S.  Twiss.  I  have  sent  in- 
structions to  Colonel  Hoffman  to  send  their  delegation  to 
me  at  once,  and  shall  impress  upon  them  the  same  condi- 
tions as  were  submitted  to  those  who  were  in  council. 

I  congratulate  the  department  on  this  happy  issue  of 
affairs  in  this  section  of  our  frontier ;  and  would  most 
earnestly  recommend  that  the  best  policy  to  secure  these 
results  be  adopted  by  the  government  at  an  early  day. 

The  character  of  the  Indians  is  undergoing  great  modi- 
fications— the  gradual  decrease  in  their  supply  of  food — 
their  poverty  of  means  to  eke  out  an  existence,  with  the 
disease  and  imposition  which  has  been  put  upon  them  on 
all  sides,  have  forced  upon  the  minds  of  these  people  the 
irresistible  conclusion,  that  to  live  hereafter  they  must 
work.  They  now  desire  to  do  so,  and  have  already,  in  some 
instances,  commenced — but  they  have  not  been  able  to 
succeed — and  they  feel  that  they  are  obliged  to  depend 
upon  the  government  for  future  aid  and  assistance  to  enable 
them  to  live. 

With  these  impressions  they  have  asked  our  government 
to  help  them  with  a  beginning,  in  raising  corn  and  other 
simple  grains  and  vegetables ;  to  give  them  hoes  and  seed, 
and  to  have  their  land  ploughed  for  them  until  they  learn 
to  do  it  themselves.  Should  the  government  take  pity 
upon  them  and  grant  their  request,  they  pledge  themselves 
to  enter  upon  their  task  in  good  faith  and  with  energy. 

It  is  not  yet  too  late  for  us  to  requite,  in  some  degree, 
this  unfortunate  race  for  their  many  sufferings,  consequent 
to  the  domain  of  our  people  on  the  soil  of  this  continent. 

These  Indians,  heretofore  proud,  stern,  and  unyielding, 
now  ask  of  us  that  assistance  which  all  nations  have  con- 
ceded to  each  other  whenever  it  has  been  sought.  W'ith 
proper  management  a  new  era  will  dawn  upon  such  of  the 
Indians  as  yet  remain. 

The  Sioux  seek  it  and  look  forward  to  it,  with  a  hope 
which  I  trust  may  not  be  blighted.  They  have  been  de- 
ceived so  often  by  the  whites  that  they  would  never  again 
give  them  their  confidence. 

.V  feeling  of  security  being  most  essential  to  the  success- 
ful   cultivation   of    the    soil,  it   will    be  seen    that    my  first 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  263 

efforts,  after  obtaining  from  the  Sioux  our  demands  for  past 
grievances,  have  been  directed  to  place  them  at  peace  with 
the  surrounding  tribes,  viz  :  the  Pawnees,  Cheycnnes,  and 
Arrapahoes.  This  I  shall  most  firmly  insist  upon  with  each 
of  the  above  named  parties,  in  addition  to  requiring  them 
to  keep  out  of  each  other's  country. 

I  arrived  at  this  conclusion  through  the  information  of  the 
fact  that  emigrants  on  arriving  in  California  and  Oregon  com- 
plain that  nearly  all  the  depredations  committed  on  the  en- 
tire route  across  the  continent,  occur  between  Fort  Leaven- 
worth and  Fort  Kearney,  on  the  Platte  and  on  the  Blue 
rivers.  This  country  is  Pawnee  country,  and  all  of  those 
nations  above  mentioned  have  heretofore  considered  them- 
selves at  war  with  the  Pawnees ;  and  under  cover  of  this 
hostility  make  annual  excursions  to  that  neighborhood  in 
the  spring,  during  the  time  of  emigration,  for  the  purpose 
of  robbing  the  whites.  In  case  of  any  accusation  being 
made,  the  guilt  is  shifted  to  some  absent  party.  The 
Pawnees  have  also  availed  themselves  of  this  state  of  things 
to  steal  from  the  whites.  I  have,  therefore,  considered  it 
best  to  keep  each  nation  in  its  own  country,  and  hold  them 
responsible  for  all  deeds  committed  therein.  This  course 
will  very  much  simplify  our  relations  with  these  Indians, 
and  at  the  same  time  render  our  control  over  them  more 
effectual. 

I  have  caused  the  Sioux  nation  to  select  and  appoint  a 
certain  number  of  chiefs  to  govern  them,  and  to  see  that 
they  carry  out  the  conditions  to  which  they  have  consented 
in  council,  and  I  have  informed  them  these  would  be  the 
only  chiefs  recognized  by  the  President,  myself,  or  their 
Indian  agent.  I  was  induced  to  this  from  the  confusion 
which  has  existed  among  the  bands  themselves,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  different  chiefs  which  have  been  appointed 
at  different  times  by  different  interests. 

Certain  chiefs  were  recognized  by  the  nation,  others  by 
the  military,  others  again  by  the  Indian  agents  ;  and  the 
traders,  for  their  own  purposes,  have  most  unwarrantably 
given  medals  and  appointed  chiefs.  These  conflicting 
interests  necessarily  weakened  the  authority  of  all  these 
chiefs,  and  to  correct  this  evil  I  most  respectfully  request 
that  the  President  will  direct  and  order  that  hereafter  none 


264  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

of  the  chiefs  of  the  Sioux  but  those  selected  in  the  late 
council,  under  the  conditions  there  agreed  upon,  be  recog- 
nized by  either  the  War  or  Interior  Departments.  This 
unity  of  action  will  greatly  tend  to  promote  the  influence 
of  the  government  over  these  people.  That  the  organiza- 
tion of  Sioux  may  be  more  complete,  I  proposed  to  the 
chiefs  to  have  a  certain  number  of  soldiers  in  each  band  to 
assist  them  to  carry  out  my  views.  They  have  each  given 
in  the  number  which  they  deemed  sufficient  for  that  pur- 
pose in  each  band,  and  I  recommend  that  these  soldiers  be 
regularly  named,  and  receive  from  the  government  a  dress 
or  uniform  by  which  they  will  be  known  ;  and  that  for  the 
time  they  may  be  doing  duty  under  their  chiefs  in  their 
villages  they  will  receive  their  rations.  The  expense  will 
be  trifling,  and  their  young  men  would  be  stimulated  and 
encouraged  to  seek  these  positions.  The  dress  should  be 
durable  and  gaudy,  particularly  the  head  dress ;  (they  are 
fond  of  feathers.)  The  uniform  of  the  different  bands 
should  be  different,  and  the  same  should  have  place  in  the 
different  grades  of  chief,  sub-chief,  &c.  By  gradually 
causing  the  interests  of  a  portion  of  the  nation  to  depend 
upon  the  wishes  of  the  government,  the  remainder  will  be 
easily  controlled. 

I  intend  using  these  Indians  as  express  men ;  they  are 
willing,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  as  long  as  a  respectable 
force  is  kept  in  the  country  they  will  be  useful  and  eco- 
nomical agents. 

I  may  state  here,  that  all  the  difficulties  which  I  have 
had  with  the  Sioux  of  the  Missouri  have  been  caused  by 
the  large  amount  of  ammunition  which  was  brought  into 
the  country  upon  the  steamers  "  St.  Mary's"  and  "Arabia," 
for  the  purpose  of  trade.  On  the  "  St.  Mary's,  "  three  hun- 
dred kegs  of  powder  were  shipped  and  delivered  at  the 
different  trading  stations  up  this  river.  The  "Arabia  "  had 
the  same  amount,  and  the  quantity  of  ball  in  both  cases 
was  in  proportion  to  the  powder.  When  the  superin- 
tendent of  Indian  affairs  reached  Fort  Clarke  he  forbid  the 
ammunition  to  be  traded,  but  left  a  discretionary  authority 
with  the  Indian  agent.  Colonel  Vaughan,  to  do  so  or  not. 

The  Indians,  under  strong  temptation,  and  encouraged 
by  the  passiveness  of  these  companies'  agents,  compelled 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  26$ 

Colonel  Vaughan,  who  had  not  a  single  soldier  to  protect 
him.  to  grant  these  companies  permission  to  trade  this 
ammunition. 

There  can  be  but  one  inference  to  be  drawn  in  reference 
to  these  companies,  and  that  is,  had  they  firmly  supported 
Colonel  Vaughan  in  his  refusal  to  the  Indians,  the  Indians 
would  never  have  acted  as  they  did. 

Do  such  persons  deserve  licenses  to  trade  with  the 
Indians? 

In  conclusion,  I  desire  to  repeat  a  former  suggestion,  as 
being  necessary  to  CQmplete  the  impression  which  has  been 
made  upon  the  Sioux  up  to  this  time,  and  that  is,  my  con- 
viction that  a  large  force  should  be  by  all  means  thrown 
through  their  country  this  summer,  to  convince  them  of  the 
ability  and  intention  of  the  government  to  enforce  obedi- 
ence  to  its  commands,  whenever  occasion  shall  require  it. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  with  great  respect,  your  most 
obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brevet  Brigadier  General,  &c. 

Hon.  Secretary  of  War. 

This  treaty  was  one  that  held  within  it  the  germ  of  peace 
to  both  the  contracting  parties.  Unfortunately  for  the 
settlers  on  the  frontier,  their  Government  had  too  little  ap- 
preciation of  the  Indian  character,  too  little  insight  into  the 
motives  of  savage  tribes  to  make  it  effective.  This  treaty, 
or  rather  protocol,  was  entered  into  by  all  the  immediate 
parties  with  the  utmost  good  faith,  and  the  papers  evidenc- 
ing the  appointments  of  sub-chiefs,  made  by  General  Har- 
ney, were  treasured  during  the  lives  of  the  appointees,  and 
shown  with  pride  as  endorsements  of  the  fidelit)'  and 
soldierly  qualities  of  the  braves,  made  in  solemn  council  by 
the  great  brave  of  the  white  race. 

As  to  the  wisdom  of  these  detailed  appointments  we 
have  an  example  in  the  oldest  and  most  treasured  of 
human  histories.  When  Jethro,  the  Midianitish  priest, 
came  to  see  the  methods  of  his  divinely  appointed  son-in- 
law,    he    marked    out    a    similar    plan.       Exodus     i8  :   2i, 


266  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

"  Moreover  thou  shalt  provide  out  of  all  the  people  able 
men,  such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  covetousness, 
and  place  such  over  them  to  be  rulers  of  thousands  and 
rulers  of  hundreds  and  rulers  of  fifties  and  rulers  of  tens." 

Uavid,  the  next  great  law-giver  of  God's  chosen  people, 
instructed  by  the  great  light  .which  shines  upon  him,  made 
a  similar  provision.  II.  Samuel  i8:  i,  "  And  David  num- 
bered the  people  that  were  with  him,  and  set  captains  of 
thousands  and   captains  of  hundreds  over  them." 

Here  was  one  of  the  simplest  principles  of  government, 
put  in  force  in  a  natural  w'ay,  and  in  such  manner  as  com- 
mended itself  to  savage  men.  Had  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment fully  carried  out  its  stipulations  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  many  subsequent  troubles  would  have  been 
avoided.  The  Indians  stood  by  their  own  promises,  and 
held  to  the  obligations  imposed  upon  them,  even  after  it 
was  clear  that  our  own  Government  had  no  intention  of 
redeeming  its  promises. 

Meanwhile,  and  early  in  the  spring,  there  were  some  tur- 
bulent Indians  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi.  They 
were  Sioux  and  kinsmen  of  Black  Beaver  and  Little 
Thunder.  These  sent  a  message  to  Harney  that  they  had 
heard  of  him,  and  wanted  to  meet  him  on  the  war  path.  He 
determined  to  accept  the  challenge,  and  prepared  to  move 
upon  them.  But  his  attention  was  called  to  his  orders, 
which  did  not  allow  him  to  go.  He  applied  to  Washington 
for  instructions  and  permission  to  pursue  his  plans,  but 
they  were  not  accorded  him. 

He  had  moved  down  a  hundred  miles  before  he  had 
tried  to  hear  from  Washington.  The  point  where  he 
encamped  is  where  Sioux  City  is  now  situated  on  the  Mis- 
souri River,  where,  hearing  nothing  from  Washington,  he 
returned  to  St.  Louis  in  September,  1856.  He  was  then 
ordered  to  Florida,  where  Billy  Bowlegs  and  a  remnant  of 
the  Seminoles  were  still  lingering  in  the  swamps  and  ever- 
glades.    They  were  soon  disposed  of  by  being  transported 


SIOUX  EXPEDITION.  267 

In  a  peaceful  manner  to  their  homes  on  the  Upper  Arkansas. 
From  Florida  he  returned  in  May,  1857,  and  was  ordered 
to  duty  in  Kansas,  where  there  was  a  delicate  and  impor- 
tant duty  to  be  performed,  requiring  the  steadiness  and 
firmness  of  the  soldier  and  the  cool  sagacity  of  the  states- 
man. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  KANSAS  TROUBLES. 

\__/HE  difficulties  in  Kansas  had  grown  out  of  political 
I  agitation.  The  soldiers  would  have  had  little  to  do 
if  the  politicians  had  made  no  mischief.  It  seemed 
to  be  the  duty  of  warriors  to  keep  the  peace  among  politi- 
cians. The  '' SiXt  o{  political  lyijig"  had  been  cultivated  to 
the  result  that  it  was  a  fine  art.  While  and  when  lying 
involved  no  personal  danger,  they  could  lie  enough  to 
make  a  dozen  wars  for  soldiers  to  fight.  There  was  a  time 
in  Ireland  when,  as  is  described  by  Sir  Jonah  Barrington, 
"  the  lawyers  did  the  fighting,  and  the  soldiers  kept  the 
peace,"  but  in  Kansas  the  agitation  of  political  demagogues 
had  made  such  a  state  of  things  that  there  was  neither 
peace  nor  fighting.  It  would  be  a  lesson  of  interest  and 
curiosity  to  write  a  history  of  the  Kansas  troubles.  It 
would  be  a  chapter  of  our  national  history,  perhaps  better 
omitted  or  forgotten,  and  if  it  could  be  so  consigned  to 
oblivion  as  to  never  again  be  remembered,  the  office  of 
the  historian  and  biographer  would  be  relieved  of  a  most 
disgusting  duty. 

As  early  as  1788,  in  framing  the  American  Constitution, 
an  effort  was  made,  supported  by  the  slave-holding  States, 
to  suppress  the  slave  trade  from  the  coast  of  Africa.  It 
was  resisted  by  those  States  whose  shipping  and  ship  own- 
ers were  remotely  or  immediately  interested  in  the  infa- 
mous traffic.  They  were  from  the  same  States  which  had 
sold,  in  the  early  settlement  of  New  England,  their  Indian 
captives  into  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  and  had  brought 
the  first  cargo  of  slaves  into  Virginia  in  1620.  The  final 
suppression   of  the  slave   trade  was   fixed  for    1808.     But 

268 


KANSAS  TROUBLES.  269 

in  the  meantime  enough  slaves  had  been  sold  to  the 
Southern  States  to  make,  with  their  progeny,  over  four 
millions.  The  slave  trade  having  ceased,  the  people 
originally  engaged  in  it  began  to  be  fanatically  opposed 
to  it. 

In  1820  the  first  compromise  was  made  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  on  the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union, 
by  which  slavery  was  not  to  exist  in  the  States  or  Territo- 
ries north  of  36  deg.  30  min.  north  latitude.  This  was  the 
compromise  effected  through  the  eloquence  and  endeavors 
of  Mr.  Clay,  of  Kentucky. 

Afterwards  the  annexation  of  Texas  gave  a  large  territo- 
rial preponderance  to  the  South,  and  upon  the  accession 
of  territory  again  to  the  North  by  the  acquisition  of  Cali- 
fornia, New  Mexico  and  the  great  West,  the  Wilmot  pro- 
viso introduced  a  new  element  of  discord  into  the  councils 
of  the  nation.  Mr.  Clay  again  compromised  in  1850,  not 
long  before  his  death,  and  in  a  memorable  debate  crowned 
his  renown  as  a  statesman  and  an  orator  with  a  garland  of 
imperishable  fame. 

But  the  subject  of  the  admission  of  Kansas  revived  the 
quarrels  between  the  sections,  in  which  the  free  thought 
of  the  people  aggravated  the  ordinary  vices  of  politicians 
and  those  who  had  and  could  have  lived  in  peace,  until 
they  were  embroiled  in  a  controversy  which  ultimately  re- 
sulted in  war — the  war  of  secession  or  rebellion.  Mr.  Douglas, 
a  senator  from  Illinois,  insisted  that,  in  the  settlement  of 
Kansas,  the  early  settlers  could  determine  for  themselves 
their  domestic  institutions,  and  that  a  South  Carolinian 
could  go  there  with  his  slaves  on  the  same  footing  that  an 
Illinoisan  could  with  his  laws  and  penalties.  This  doc- 
trine, known  as  squatter  sovereignty,  which  Mr.  Douglas 
had  learned  from  Count  Cavour,  was  odious,  it  would 
seem,  to  both  sections,  but  in  the  settlement  of  Kansas  led 
to  great  excitement  and  agitation  from  one  end  of  the 
Union    to    the    other.       But    Mr.   Benton,  who    was    born, 


2/0  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

raised,  lived  and  died  among  slaveholders,  held  quite  a 
different  doctrine  to  that  of  Mr.  Douglas,  and  which  he 
expressed  in  the  following  forcible  words: 

The  prohibition  of  slavery  in  a  territory  is  assumed  to 
work  an  inequality  in  the  States,  allowing  one  part  to 
carry  its  property  with  it — the  other  not.  This  is  a  mis- 
take— a  great  error  of  fact — the  source  of  great  errors  of 
deduction.  The  citizens  of  all  the  States,  free  and  slave, 
are  precisely  equal  in  their  capacity  to  carry  their  property 
with  them  into  territories.  Each  may  carry  whatever  is 
property  by  the  laws  of  nature  :  neither  can  carry  that 
which  is  only  property  by  statute  law  ;  and  the  reason  is, 
because  he  cannot  carry  with  him  the  law  which  makes  it 
property.  Either  may  carry  the  thing  which  is  the  subject 
of  this  local  property  ;  but  neither  can  carry  the  law  which 
makes  it  so.  The  Virginian  may  carry  his  man-slave ;  but 
he  cannot  carry  the  Virginian  law  which  makes  him  a  slave. 
The  citizen  of  Massachusetts  may  carry  the  pile  of  money 
which,  under  a  State  law,  constitutes  a  bank ;  but  he  can- 
not carry  the  law  or  charter  which  makes  it  a  bank :  and 
his  treasure  is  only  a  pile  of  money  ;  and,  besides  being 
impossible,  it  would  be  absurd,  and  confusion  confounded, 
to  be  otherwise.  For,  if  the  citizen  of  one  State  may  carry 
his  slave  State  law  with  him  into  a  territory,  the  citizens  of 
every  other  slave  State  might  do  the  same  ;  and  then 
what  Babylonish  confusion,  not  merely  of  tongues,  but  of 
laws,  would  be  found  there !  Fifteen  different  codes,  as 
the  slave  States  now  number,  and  more  to  come.  For 
every  slave  State  has  a  servile  code  of  its  own,  differing 
from  others  in  some  respects — and  in  some,  radically  :  as 
much  so  as  land,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  differs  from  cattle. 
Thus,  in  some  States,  as  in  Virginia  and  others,  slaves  are 
only  chattels :  in  others,  as  in  Kentucky  and  Louisiana, 
they  are  real  estate.  How  would  all  these  codes  work 
together  in  a  territory  under  the  wing  of  the  Constitution, 
protecting  all  equally ;  no  law  of  Congress  there,  or  of  the 
territory,  to  reconcile  and  harmonize  them  by  forming  them 
into  one  ;  no  law  to  put  the  protecting  power  of  the  Con- 
stitution into  action  ;  but  of  itself,  by  its  own  proper  vigor, 
it  is  to  give  general  and  equal  protection  to  all  slaveholders 


ARGUING  THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION. 


KANSAS  TROUBLES. 


273 


in  the  enjoyment  of  their  property — each,  according  to  the 
law  of  the  State  from  which  he  came  !  For,  there  being  no 
power  in  Congress,  or  the  Territorial  Legislature,  to  legis- 
late upon  slavery,  the  whole  subject  is  left  to  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  State  law !  that  law  which  cannot  cross  the 
State  line  !  and  that  Constitution  which  gives  protection  to 
slave  property  but  in  one  instance,  and  that  only  in  States, 
not  in  Territories — the  single  instance  of  recovering  run- 
aways. The  Constitution  protect  slave  property  in  a  terri- 
tory !  when,  by  that  instrument,  a  runaway  from  the 
territory  or  into  the  territory  cannot  be  reclaimed !  Beau- 
tiful constitutional  protection  that !  only  one  clause  under 
it  to  protect  slave  property  ;  and  that  limited,  in  express 
words,  to  fugitives  between  State  and  State  !  and  but  one 
clause  in  it  to  protect  the  master  against  his  slaves,  and 
that  limited  to  States  !  and  but  one  clause  in  it  to  tax  slaves 
as  property,  and  that  limited  to  States  !  and  but  one  clause 
in  it  to  give  a  qualified  representation  to  Congress,  and  that 
limited  to  States.  No ;  the  thing  is  impossible.  The 
ower  cannot  carry  his  slave  State  law  with  him  into  the 
Territory ;  nor  can  he  carry  it  into  another  slave  State,  but 
must  take  the  law  which  he  finds  there,  and  have  his  prop- 
erty governed  by  it ;  and,  in  some  instances,  wholly 
changed  by  it,  and  rights  lost,  or  acquired,  by  the  change. 

In  New  England  eminent  preachers,  among  them  the 
eloquent  Beechers  and  Kallachs,  taught  the  gospel  of 
Sharpe's  rifles  and  active  resistance,  and  societies  in  aid 
of  free  State  immigration  were  organized  and  liberally  sup- 
ported with  money.  In  the  South  emigration  of  pro-sla- 
very men  was  encouraged  and  supported. 

These  circumstances  made  the  new  territory  a  scene  of 
perpetual  conflict  and  sedition.  The  free  State  men  and 
the  slave  State  men,  under  the  doctrine  of  squatter  sov- 
ereignty, endeavored  to  capture  the  State  of  Kansas,  either 
for  the  North  or  the  South,  and  a  heavy  emigration  from 
both  sections  contested  the  settlement  and  organization  of 
the  territory,  and  its  ultimate  organization  as  a  free  or  a 
slave  State. 

No  State,  not  even  California,  was  ever  so  rapidly  col- 

17 


274  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

onized.  John  Brown,  since  famous  for  having  been  hanged 
under  Governor  Wise's  administration,  in  Charlestown,  Vir- 
ginia, for  a  fanatical  raid  upon  Harper's  Ferry,  had  come  to 
Kansas  with  his  family.  He  was  an  earnest  and  honest 
fanatic  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  did  much  to  bring 
about  hostilities  among  the  discordant  and  excited  elements 
in  the  Kansas  population. 

The  first  Governor  was  Reeder,  from  Easton,  Pennsyl- 
vania. Reeder,  appointed  as  a  Democrat,  was  a  signal 
failure;  he  was  tired  of  his  position  and  was  soon  suc- 
ceeded by  Geary,  who  was  likewise  a  weak  and  vapid 
politician,  incapable  of  giving  satisfaction.  Shannon,  ex- 
Governor  of  Ohio,  had  more  character  and  ability  but  as 
little  success.  The  governorship  of  the  territory  for  a 
while  was  in  the  hands  of  the  acting  Governor,  who  was 
Secretary  of  State.  Neither  party  could  be  satisfied,  and 
while  it  was  difficult  to  satisfy  one  party  it  was  impossible 
to  please  both.  The  governorship  was  at  last  tendered  to 
Robert  J.  Walker,  of  Mississippi,  who  had  been  a  success- 
ful cabinet  minister,  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  He 
asked  as  a  condition  if  he  took  the  office,  that  General 
Harney  should  be  sent  there  to  command  the  troops. 
Walker  was  like  his  predecessors,  a  signal  failure  as  a  gov- 
ernor, but  Harney  was  a  success  as  a  miUtary  commander. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  his  gubernatorial  career  in 
Kansas,  General  Harney  told  Walker,  in  the  most  positive 
terms,  that  Kansas  had  been  the  grave-yard  of  every  gov- 
ernor and  general  sent  there,  and  that  he  did  not  intend  it 
to  be  his,  and  positively  refused  to  serve  partisan  interests 
on  either  side. 

The  battles  of  Osawatomie,  the  sacking  of  Lawrence, 
and  the  dozens  of  almost  bloodless  collisions  between  ]\Iis- 
sourians,  who  were  called  "  border  ruffians,"  and  the  emis- 
saries of  emigrant  aid  societies  from  New  England,  and 
the  frequent  bloody  murders  and  assassinations  which 
were  magnified  and  exaggerated  in  the  press  for  the  Eastern 


KANSAS  TROUBLES.  2/$ 

lie  market,  we  do  not  care  to  dwell  upon.  Nor  do  we  care 
to  descant  upon  the  fraudulent  elections,  or  villainies  per- 
petrated with  wholesale  perjuries  and  sacrileges  that  charac- 
terized the  early  settlement  of  that  State,  which  now  is  so 
rapidly  developing  and  taking  rank  among  her  sisters ;  but 
this  we  have  to  say,  that  General  Harney  went  there  as  a 
soldier  and  not  as  a  politician ;  that  he  pacified  the  ter- 
ritory, preserved  the  peace,  and  attended  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws  ;  that  his  great  merit  consisted  in  pre- 
venting and  not  making  war,  and  that  his  administration 
of  the  delicate  duties  of  the  commanding  officer  of  his 
department,  impartial  and  honest,  inflexible  and  just,  re- 
sulted in  the  ultimate  settlement  and  admission  of  the 
State  of  Kansas  into  the  Union,  and  the  prosperity  of  her 
people. 

General  Harney  was  relieved  from  duty  in  Kansas  in 
April,  1858,  and  ordered  to  the  command  of  the  expedition 
to  Utah,  On  the  27th  day  of  May,  1858,  General  Harney 
reported  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  the  General-in-chief,  in 
reference  to  the  Utah  expedition  : 

Head-quarters  Utah  Forces,       ) 
Fort  Leavenworth,  May  27,  1858.  j 

Sir:  The  second  column  of  the  troops  destined  for 
Utah  left  this  post  on  the  21st  instant;  the  third  starts 
to-morrow,  and  the  fourth  Monday  the  31st.  I  enclose 
herewith  a  return  of  the  second  column,  and  the  acting 
inspector  general's  report  of  his  inspections,  which  will 
give  detailed  informaton  in  regard  to  its  strength  and  con- 
dition. 

The  expedition  thus  far  starts  under  favorable  auspices. 
I  expect  the  leading  supplies  to  reach  Camp  Scott  by  the 
last  of  July,  and  by  the  lOth  of  August,  one  entire 
division,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  wagons,  carrying 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  rations,  will  have 
arrived,  with  their  escort,  numbering  about  nine  hundred 
men.  By  that  time  the  first  column,  under  Lieutenant 
Colonel    Andrews,    sixth    infantry,    about   three   hundred 


2/6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Strong,  will  also  have  arrived  over  the  Bridger's  Pass  route, 
making  the  force  present,  including  the  troops  already 
there,  about  three  thousand  men.  Whatever  military  oper- 
ations may  be  necessary  can  then  be  commenced  with 
vigor  and  tolerable  efficiency.  I  shall  be  at  Camp  Scott 
myself  in  advance  of  the  first  troops.  Of  the  eighteen 
hundred  or  two  thousand  wagons  which  will  carry  out  the 
year's  supply,  only  about  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  are  by 
the  present  arrangement  provided  with  escort,  but  I  shall 
take  timely  measures  to  provide  for  the  remainder,  antici- 
pating that  the  volunteer  force  which  was  expected  to  be 
called  out  cannot  be  calculated  upon  for  this  purpose. 
This  provision  will  probably  involve  the  use  of  a  consid- 
erable cavalry  force  on  the  road  ;  and  for  the  winter  dispo- 
sitions, the  return  and  establishment  of  a  considerable 
force  in  the  district  of  the  Platte,  where  they  will  be  sub- 
sisted more  cheaply,  diminish  the  draw  upon  the  supply  in 
Utah,  and  be  ready  for  convoy  service  in  the  spring  if 
necessary. 

It  would  be  premature  at  this  time  to  go  more  mto  detail 
in  regard  to  these  matters,  or  to  anticipate  what  military 
operations  may  be  necessary  after  my  arrival ;  but  1  shall 
keep  the  general-in-chief  promptly  advised  on  the  sub- 
ject as  circumstances  may  determine  it.  The  copies  of  my 
orders  forwarded  regularly  to  your  office  and  the  Adjutant 
General's  Office,  will  give  the  current  details  of  my  com- 
mand. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brevet  Brigadier  General,  commanding. 

The  Mormons  had,  under  the  leadership  of  their  proph- 
et, rejected  the  authority  of  the  United  States.  They  had 
expelled-the  Judges  of  the  Federal  courts,  and  driven  away 
the  Governors  sent  them  by  the  Washington  Government. 
They  had  incited  the  Indians  to  hostilities,  and  treated  with 
contempt  the  Federal  authority.  General  Harney's  plan 
of  the  campaign  was  thorough,  and  he  had  fully  deter- 
mined, on  arriving  at  Salt  Lake  City,  to  capture  Brigham 
Young   and   the   twelve  apostles,   and   execute   them    in   a 


^■f:3^^0f:^^l^ 


BRIGHAM  YOUNG. 


KANSAS  TROUBLES.  279 

summary  manner,  and  winter  in  the  Temple  of  the  Latter- 
day  Saints.  This  would  not  have  been  an  improbable  act 
of  a  military  chieftain  whose  whole  life  had  been  so  demon- 
strative. Though  possessed  of  an  unusual  degree  of  the 
humanitarian  element,  which  always  prompted  him  to  take 
the  side  of  the  weak  and  oppressed,  in  conformity  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Higher  Law,  he  was  no  apologist  for 
wrong  doing,  and  would  never  compromise  with  that  which 
he  believed  to  be  wrong;  though  his  standard  of  judgment 
was  not  technically  that  which  resulted  from  religious 
teachings,  but  that  which  resulted  from  a  sense  of  duty  and 
related  to  personal  honor  and  personal  duty,  and  to  the 
public  peace  and  prosperity.  If,  therefore.  General  Har- 
ney had  been  permitted  to  continue  his  march  to  the  Mor- 
mon capital,  and,  as  a  consequence,  executed  Brigham 
Young  and  the  twelve  apostles  under  him,  he  would  not 
have  so  done  because  of  any  personal  concern  about  the 
Mormon  religion,  for  that  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
him.  His  thought  was  only  that  which  related  to  duty,  to 
the  removal  of  all  obstructions  that  came  in  his  way,  to 
the  peace  of  the  people,  the  safety  of  human  life,  and  the 
planting  of  empire  over  our  unpeopled  territory. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  all  things  constantly  repeat  them- 
selves, nearly  the  whole  of  General  Harney's  military  life 
has  been  a  repetition  of  the  Jewish  warfare,  and  his  military 
exploits  have  been  typified  by  Jethro,  Moses,  Joshua,  and 
David,  and  if  he  had  entered  Salt  Lake  City,  he  would 
have  repeated  the  daring  deed  of  the  Roman  Titus  who 
captured  and  laid  waste  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  the  primitive 
apostles.  In  his  personal  qualities  General  Harney  ex- 
emplifies, in  a  great  degree,  the  excellencies  of  the  ancient 
Titus. 

General  Harney  was  relieved  from  the  command  of  the 
Utah  expedition  and  ordered  to  the  Pacific  coast.  While 
on  his  way  to  Oregon  he  was  promoted  to  a  Brigadier- 
General,  the  commission  bearing  date  of  June  14,  1858. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SERVICE    IN    OREGON. 

IN    September,     1858,    Brigadier    General  Harney    was 
relieved    from    duty    with    the    Utah    expedition,    and 
ordered  to  the  command  of  the  department  of  Oregon. 
The   following  were  his   instructions   received  from    head- 
quarters : 

Adjutant   General's    Office, 
VVashington,  Sept.    14,  1858. 

General:  In  transmitting  to  you  the  enclosed  "  general 
orders"  No.  10,  I  am  directed  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to 
communicate  the  following  instructions,  which  are  to  guide 
you  in  prosecuting  the  war  against  the  Indians  of  Wash- 
ington and  Oregon  Territories : 

The  campaign,  already  commenced  by  Brevet  Brigadier 
General  Clarke,  must  be  prosecuted  with  the  greatest 
possible  vigor  and  activity,  and  the  hostile  bands  must  be 
thoroughly  chastised  and  subdued.  There  will  be  no  ces- 
sation of  the  campaign  for  the  winter,  that  being  on  many 
accounts  the  most  favorable  season  for  striking  at  the  homes 
and  herds  of  the  hostiles.  The  fall  of  snow,  at  no  time 
sufficient  to  prevent  the  ready  operations  of  troops  in  the 
valleys  lying  between  the  Cascade  and  Rocky  mountains, 
where  the  Indians  dwell  and  graze  their  animals  in  winter, 
is,  nevertheless,  so  great  in  the  mountain  passes  as  to  pre- 
vent their  passage  by  the  Indians.  Their  families  and 
herds  will  thus  be  readily  reached  by  the  troops,  and  no 
exertions  should  be  spared  to  capture  the  first  and  destroy 
the  last. 

No  overtures  of  friendship  should  be  made  to  any  tribes 
before  the  chastisement  of  the  hostiles.  It  would  be  taken 
as  an  evidence  of  weakness  or  fear,  and  exaggerate  rather 
than  relieve  the  evils  of  a  war  with  those  people. 

Undoubted  evidences  of  friendship  towards  the   whites 

280 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  281 

by  any  of  the  tribes  should  be  met  in  a  spirit  of  kindness, 
but  overtures  should  not  be  made  to  any. 

The  Secretary  further  directs  me  to  say  that  he  expects 
you  to  let  no  opportunity  pass  of  communicating  events  to 
the  War  Department,  and  to  this  end  he  desires  you  to  for- 
ward to  the  Adjutant  General  duplicates  of  your  reports, 
which,  in  the  ordinary  channel,  will  pass  through  army 
lieadquarters. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  general,  very  respectfully,  your 
obedient  servant, 

E.  D.  TOWNSEND, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 
Brig.  Gen.  W.  S.  Harney, 

United  States  Army,    Washington,   D.  C, 

Here  he  found  the  situation  such  as  to  demand  all  the 
highest  faculties  of  the  experienced  soldier  and  the  civilian. 
On  being  ordered  to  the  Pacific  coast,  he  asked  the  Gov- 
ernment to  send  with  him  Father  De  Smet,  an  eminent 
Jesuit  priest,  who  had  been  a  missionary  among  the  Flat 
Heads  and  other  tribes  on  the  Columbia  river  and  its  tribu- 
taries. He  knew  ^,he  influence  Father  De  Smet  had  with 
the  Indians,  and  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  have  him  with 
him,  not  only  for  his  influence,  but  for  the  information  he 
could  afford  him  of  the  country  and  the  nature  and  dispo- 
sition of  the  several  tribes.  Father  De  Smet  was  appointed 
chaplain.  The  records  of  the  War  Department  at  Wash- 
ington show  as  follows : 

"  General  Harney  has  suggested  to  the  Secretary  of 
War  the  propriety  of  appointing  the  Reverend  P.  J. 
De  Smet,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  chaplain  of  the 
army  of  Utah,  in  view  of  his  services  being  important  in 
many  respects  to  the  public  interests  in  Utah.  " 

Accompanying  this  is  an  order  from  John  B.  Floyd, 
Secretary  of  War,  for  the  appointment,  as  also  a  letter 
from  General  Harney  to  Adjutant  General  Cooper,  to  tele- 
graph Father  De  Smet  of  his  appointment,  at  the  Planter's 
House,  St.  Louis,  to  gain  time  for  preparation. 


2  82  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Father  De  Smet  accompanied  him  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
In  California  the  Indians  had  been  hostile,  and  the  troubles 
resulted  in  frequent  skirmishes  and  fights.  General  Clarke 
was  in  command,  whom  General  Harney  was  ordered  to 
relieve.  Before  he  reached  there  General  Clarke  sent  mes- 
sages to  the  hostile  Indians  for  a  council.  They  came  in, 
and  the  officer  in  immediate  command,  Colonel  Thomas, 
demanded  of  them  the  surrender  of  their  prisoners.  The 
Indians  refused  to  accede  to  the  terms,  when  Major  Key, 
of  the  2d  artillery,  asked  the  privilege  of  addressing  the 
Indians,  which  being  granted,  he  addressed  them,  and 
stated  that  the  great  war  chief.  General  Harney,  whose 
fame  as  an  Indian  fighter  was  well  known  among  all  the 
tribes,  was  on  his  way  to  relieve  General  Clarke  and  take 
command  of  the  department;  that  General  Harney  would, 
if  the  terms  demanded  were  not  conceded,  demand  more 
and  make  such  vigorous  war  upon  them  as  to  exact  harder 
and  severer  conditions.  After  ]\Iajor  Key's  speech,  the 
Indians  deliberated  and  made  a  treaty  conformable  to  the 
terms  proposed  originalh'. 

Accompanied  by  Captain  Pleasanton  and  Lieutenant 
Jesup  of  his  staff,  with  Father  De  Smet,  General  Harney 
arrived  at  Fort  Vancouver,  October  24,  1858.  Of  Father 
De  Smet  it  is  due  to  say,  he  was  chaplain  to  General  Har- 
ney from  no  wordly  considerations,  and  the  services  he  ren- 
dered the  United  States  were  rendered  in  the  cause  of 
humanity,  Christianity  and  duty.  Born  in  Belgium,  a  noble- 
man, with  every  prospect  in  life  before  him  in  any  wordly 
pursuit,  he  espoused  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  won  high  distinction  among  its  honored  leaders,  and  was 
noted  for  his  devotion  to  its  cause.  With  other  students, 
in  1 82 1,  he  sailed  for  America,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
ordained  a  priest  and  joining  the  "  Society  of  Jesus."  The 
late  Reverend  Father  Van  Asche,  S.  J.,  likewise  a  youth 
of  noble  lineage,  was  of  the  party,  who,  in  1877,  was 
buried  at  the  novitiate  of  Saint   Stanislaus,  near  the  village 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  283 

of  Florissant,  or  Saint  Ferdinand,  near  Saint  Louis,  where 
he  had  been  parish  priest  for  fifty-four  years.  Father  .De- 
Smet  was  ordained  in  America,  and  was  for  a  long  time  a 
missionary  among  the  Indians  in  Chili  and  other  provinces 
of  South  America.  He  devoted  his  life  to  the  red  man. 
With  learning,  talents,  eloquence,  birth,  wealth,  influence, 
and  power,  he  deserted  the  social  allurements  of  the  highest 
civilization  to  devote  himself  to  missionary  labors,  and 
found  among  the  Indians  an  ample  field  for  his  abilities, 
his  energies,  and  the  faith  of  his  choice  and  adoption. 
His  life-labors  were  self-sacrificing,  and  in  the  interest  of 
the  poor  Indian  whose  untutored  mind  "  sees  God  in  clouds 
and  hears  Him  in  the  wind."  From  almost  the  coast  of 
Patagonia  to  the  frozen  regions  of  Behring's  Strait  and  the 
sterile  and  inhospitable  lands  of  Alaska,  he  had  lived  in 
familiar  intercourse  with  the  aboriginal  savage.  He  had 
found  him  made  in  the  image  of  his  Creator,  and  had  found 
in  him  a  soul  and  a  heart.  With  the  cross  and  the  sacra- 
ment he  carried  the  gospel  to  all  the  wild  tribes  of  the 
Northwest ;  had  traversed  the  whole  land  from  the  Mis- 
souri River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  preaching,  teaching,  and 
baptizing.  No  guile  was  on  his  tongue,  and  the  natives 
had  learned  to  revere  him,  to  believe  and  trust  him.  The 
'  black  gozvn"  was  a  welcome  guest  in  every  lodge  and 
at  every  feast  from  Minnesota  to  Alaska.  With  no  carnal 
weapons,  and  without  purse  or  scrip,  in  the  manner  of  the 
primitive  apostles,  he  had  taken  with  him  only  his  divine 
commission  to  teach.  The  nations  of  aboriginal  savages 
listened  in  wonder ;  they  revered  his  holy  life,  and  believed 
in  his  holy  faith.  Unmercenary  and  courteous,  only  in  the 
love  of  souls,  he  fasted  and  feasted  with  them.  When  they 
ate  their  dogs  and  ponies,  he  shared  their  homely  fare ; 
when  they  were  riotous  he  rebuked  them,  and  they  took 
this  "  open  rebuke  "  as  "  secret  love."  When  they  were  in 
sorrow  he  comforted  them.  Their  friend  in  distress,  their 
adviser  and  teacher  in  faith,  he  was  with  them,  revered  not 


284  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

only  as  a  priest  and  father,  but  as  a  faithful  and  honest  ally 
on  whom  they  might  depend,  either  for  advice  or  rebuke, 
without  suspicion  of  falsehood  or  mercenary  motive.  So 
had  his  holy  and  devout  life  impressed  them  that  the 
"  black  gown  "  could,  in  war  or  peace,  pass  through  the 
tribes,  hostile  or  friendly  ;  always  greeted  with  hospitality, 
and  always  trusted,  a  trust  that  was  never  betrayed,  nor 
under  suspicion  of  treachery.  With  learning,  all  that  a 
most  vigorous  intellect  and  the  most  devoted  application 
could  acquire  in  the  best  schools  of  Europe,  secular  and 
religious  ;  with  a  cultivation  in  classics  and  elegant  litera- 
ture of  all  that  was  knowable  and  to  be  known,  and  with 
a  profound  and  exhaustive  knowledge  of  philosoph}',  he 
condescended  to  look  into  the  mind  and  philosophy  of  the 
simple  savage,  and  the  result  of  his  condescension  was,  he 
found  the  savage  a  philosopher.  He  learned  the  Indian 
dialects  and  all  their  languages  ;  probed  the  secret  springs 
of  all  their  motives ;  searched  into  the  secrets  of  their 
hearts ;  sounded  the  depths  of  their  affections ;  got  to 
sympathize  in  their  love  of  country  and  their  families,  and 
found  the  Indian  was  human  ;  that  he  was  manly  and  brave, 
truthful  and  honest,  and  the  good  apostle  devoted  his  life 
to  their  cause  and  welfare,  and  in  the  nearly  fifty  years  of 
his  mission  among  them  they  had  not  ever  heard  or  known 
of  his  once  "  speaking  with  a  forked  tongue."  He  had 
never  deceived  them,  never  cheated  them,  and  they  had 
never  deceived  him. 

Father  De  Smet  had,  as  a  missionarx',  ascended  and  ex- 
plored the  Columbia  and  the  rivers  of  Oregon;  had  feasted 
with  them  on  the  dead  and  rotten  salmon  killed  in  jumping 
the  falls  and  rapids,  and  feasted  with  them  when  they  were 
fat  and  prosperous.  With  every  foot  of  the  unexplored 
region  of  Oregon  he  was  acquainted,  and  with  the  chiefs, 
women  and  children  of  the  Indian  tribes  he  was  always  a 
welcome  guest.  Many  of  them  were  his  catechumens,  and 
had  received  from  him  the  sacrament  of  baptism.     Their 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  28$ 

chiefs  were  his  friends,  and  the  selection  of  the  good  father 
for  his  chaplain  indicates  not  only  the  wisdom  of  the  sol- 
dier, but  the  sagacity  of  the  statesman  in  General  Harney. 
On  his  arrival  at  Fort  Vancouver,  General  Harney  found 
a  state  of  things  with  the  Indians  indicated  in  his  dis- 
patches to  the  War  Department.  Lieutenant  Jesup  was, 
at  his  own  request,  relieved  from  duty  and  ordered  to 
rejoin  his  regiment,  the  loth  infantry,  leaving  with  him 
Father  De  Smet,  chaplain,  and  Captain  Pleasanton,  Acting 
Assistant  Adjutant  General.  The  Indians  had  sued  for 
peace,  as  we  have  stated,  and  treaties  had  been  made  with 
the  Spokanes,  the  Coeur  d'Alenes  and  Nez  Perces,  Walla 
Wallas,  and  other  tribes,  in  September.  The  turbulent 
Indians  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  outbreaks  had  fled 
to  the  Flat  Heads,  and  General  Harney  announces  his  de- 
termination to  demand  their  surrender.  He  deliberately 
planned  his  campaign,  and  determined  to  enforce  the  laws, 
as  well  as  protect  the  settlers  and  preserve  the  public 
peace.  By  the  treaty  made  with  the  Coeur  d'Alene  In- 
dians, which  applied  to  the  Nez  Perces,  the  Indians  who 
had,  without  orders,  attacked  Colonel  Steptoe's  command, 
were  to  be  given  up,  and  hostages  were  to  be  delivered  as 
a  guaranty  for  good  faith  ibr  one  year,  after  which  time  a 
permanent  treaty  was  to  be  made  with  the  tribes.  Treaties 
similar  in  effect  were  made  with  the  Spokane  and  Walla 
Walla  Indians.  The  Indians  who  had  committed  the  dep- 
redations in  various  parts  of  the  territory,  were  promptly 
demanded,  and  in  several  instances  as  promptly  delivered 
up.  General  Harney,  in  a  dispatch  to  the  War  Depart- 
ment, dated  November  4,  1858,  said: 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon,    ) 

Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Nov.  4,  1858.       j 

Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  the  general-in-chief  of 

the  receipt  of  a  report  from  Captain  I.  I.  Archer,  of  the  9th 

infantry,  commanding  Fort   Simcoe,  in  which  it  is  stated 

that  two  of  the  three  surviving  murderers  of  Bolan,  viz : 


286  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

"Stahan"  and  "  Wapi-wapi-tla,"  had  been  brought  in  to 
that  post  by  a  party  of  friendly  Indians,  on  the  i6th  ultimo, 
and  that  he  had  caused  them  to  be  hung.  Captain  Archer 
further  reports  that  "Sugintch,"  the  only  remaining  mur- 
derer, has  since  committed  suicide,  in  order  to  disappoint 
the  Indians  who  were  endeavoring  to  capture  him. 

This  prompt  action  on  the  part  of  Captain  Archer  is  ap- 
proved. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Covimaiiding. 

In  a  dispatch  of  the  day  following  he  gives  an  interesting 
account  of  the  Indians  of  Oregon  and  Washington  Territor 
ries: 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon,  \ 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Nov.  5,  1858.      j 

Sir  :  The  Indians  in  this  section  of  the  country  are  en- 
tirely different  from  the  great  nomadic  tribes  of  the  plains, 
who  own  and  roam  over  vast  regions  in  search  of  plunder 
and  game,  and  all  of  whose  instincts  are  warlike.  The 
tribes  of  Washington  and  Oregon  Territories,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  those  residing  near  the  Rocky  Mountains,  are 
small  in  number,  each  occupying  a  limited  territor}%  from 
which  in  many  cases  they  obtain  a  meagre  subsistence. 
The  subdivisions  of  these  Indians  into  tribes  are  very  nu- 
merous. Those  tribes  residing  on  the  Columbia  river  and 
its  tributaries  subsist  principally  upon  fish,  particularly  the 
salmon,  whose  annual  migration  up  these  rivers  forms  one 
of  the  great  curiosities  of  nature.  Other  tribes  live  on 
roots,  berries,  and  such  wild  fruits  as  their  country  affords, 
and  in  times  of  great  privation  they  obtain  from  the  moss  of 
the  country,  which  is  very  abundant,  a  glutinous  substance 
that  supports  life.  The  same  improvidence  which  charac- 
terizes the  Indian  race  elsewhere  is  seen  here,  attended  by 
the  same  results;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  predict  that  the 
red  men  of  America  will  gradually  disappear  about  the 
same  time  from  the  different  sections  of  our  country. 

From  the  different  languages,  interests,  and  jealousies 
existing  among  so  many  different  tribes,  a  coalition  of  all 
of  them   in   one  common  cause  is  impossible ;  indeed,  the 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  28/ 

events  of  the  past  summer  have  shown  the  difficulties 
which  require  to  be  removed  before  a  small  number  could 
be  made  to  act  toc^ether,  and  these  difficulties  are  out  o(  all 
proportion  to  the  advantages  and  facilities  the  troops  pos- 
sess to  crush  them.  If  the  reports  I  have  received  be 
correct,  another  coalition  of  these  Indians  never  will  be 
attempted. 

For  the  welfare  of  the  Indians,  as  well  as  the  better 
security  of  the  white  settler,  I  would  respectfully  recom- 
mend that  the  Indians  of  this  department  be  placed  on 
reservations  assigned  them  by  the  government  for  their 
support  and  sustenance.  A  system  of  instruction  in  culti- 
vating the  soil  applicable  to  them  should  also  be  adopted, 
•  with  a  proper  provision  of  seeds  and  implements  for  their 
use. 

Laws  should  also  be  passed  defining  their  positions  and 
their  rights  upon  these  reservations,  which  should  be  con- 
venient to  the  military  stations,  that  all  controversies 
between  them  and  the  settlers  may  be  decided  on  the  spot, 
and  that  the  Indian  could  have  a  market  for  his  produce 
when  desiring  to  dispose  of  it. 

To  secure  the  emigrant  route  to  this  department  from 
the  frontiers  of  Missouri,  I  shall  establish  a  post  in  the 
spring  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Boisee,  on  Snake  River,  some 
two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  from  Fort  Walla-Walla.  At 
least  four  companies  should  garrison  this  point — two  of 
foot  and  two  of  mounted  force.  The  road  is  a  good  one 
from  Fort  Walla- Walla,  and  it  can  be  supplied  from  that 
point.  I  also  respectfully  recommend  a  post  near  Fort 
Hall  on  the  same  route,  but  would  advise  that  the  garrison, 
as  well  as  the  supplies,  be  furnished  from  the  department  of 
Utah,  for  reasons  of  economy  and  supervision. 

As  soon  as  the  season  will  permit  I  shall  establish  a  gar- 
rison of  at  least  four  companies  in  the  vicinity  of  Colville, 
to  protect  the  interests  of  the  citizens  in  that  quarter  and 
serve  as  a  check  upon  the  Indian  tribes  who  were  so  lately 
hostile. 

The  establishment  of  the  above-mentioned  posts  is  con- 
sidered subject  to  the  revision  of  higher  authority. 

I  enclose  a  copy  of  my  instructions  to  the  Rev.  P.  J. 
De  Smet,  who,  it  will  be  seen,  has  proceeded  to  the    Coeur 


288  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

d'Alene  Mission,  by  my  directions,  to  visit  the  Indians  of 
that  vicinity  for  the  purpose  of  observing  their  disposition, 
and  to  counsel  them  to  observe  most  faithfully  all  the  con- 
ditions they  have  promised  to  fulfill  towards  the  govern- 
ment and  its  citizens. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  Getieral,  Commandiyig. 
Assistant  Adjutant  General, 

Headquarters  of  the  Ai-iny,  New  York  City. 

Father  De  Smet  had,  in  the  meantime,  been  sent  on  a 
mission  to  the  Coeur  d'Alenes,  with  the  following  instruc- 
tions, dated  October  28,  1858: 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon,  1 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Oct.  28,  1858.  / 

Dear  Sir  :  The  general  commanding  instructs  me  to 
say  that  he  most  cordially  approves  of  your  proposition  to 
visit  the  Coeur  d'Alene  Mission  this  winter,  for  he  conceives 
the  happiest  results  from  your  presence  among  the  Indian 
tribes  of  that  vicinity. 

He  has  directed  that  every  facility  shall  be  furnished  you 
to  enable  you  to  perform  in  safety  the  inclement  and  trying 
journey  you  are  about  to  undertake.  A  copy  of  his 
instructions  is  enclosed  herewith. 

The  general  desires  you  to  impress  upon  the  Indians  you 
are  to  counsel  the  strong  necessity  existing  for  them  to 
live  up  to  the  conditions  to  which  they  have  so  lately 
subscribed  in  the  treaties  they  have  made,  more  especially 
in  the  surrender  of  such  persons  as  were  demanded  of 
them.  Two  of  these  persons,  Kaviaikin  and  ScJilooin,  it  is 
reported,  have  gone  among  the  Flatheads,  but  that  circum- 
stance must  not  prevent  the  tribes  concerned  from  using 
every  endeavor  to  obtain  possession  of  them  for  the  pur- 
poses above  indicated. 

While  informing  the  Indians  that  the  government  is  aiways 
generous  to  a  fallen  foe,  state  to  them  it  is  at  the  same 
time  determined  to  protect  its  citizens  in  every  part  of  its 
territory,  and  that  they  can  only  expect  to  exist  by 
implicitly  obeying  the  commands  they  receive. 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  289 

The  same  troops  are  permanently  stationed  in  the 
country  who  met  them  in  the  field  the  past  summer,  and 
these  will,  most  assuredly,  be  placed  upon  their  trail  in  the 
spring,  with  instructions  to  give  no  quarter  should  they 
again  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  what  has  been  told  them. 

I  am  instructed  to  say  you  will  communicate  freely  with 
these  headquarters. 

The  best  wishes  of  the  general  will  attend  you  in  the 
holy  mission  of  charity  to  which  you  have  devoted  your- 
self in  so  generous  a  manner. 

I  am.  Father,  most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  PLEASONTON, 
Captain  2d  Dragoons,  Acting  Asst.  Adj't.  General. 

Rev.  Father  P.  J.  De  Smet, 

Chaplain,  &c.,  Vancouver,  W.  T. 

The  fall  and  winter  of  1858  were  spent  in  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  troops,  and  in  the  pacification  of  the  hostile 
Indians,  both  of  which  objects  were  effected  without  blood- 
shed, and  as  the  result  of  a  wise  energy  and  sleepless 
vigilance.  In  a  dispatch  to  the  War  Department,  Novem- 
ber 24,  1858,  suggestion  is  made  of  the  bad  condition  of 
the  horses  belonging  to  the  four  companies  of  the  6th  dra- 
goons on  duty  at  Fort  Walla  Walla,  and  on  the  27th  a  fur- 
ther dispatch  announces  that  the  pacification  of  the  Indians 
is  so  far  effected,  that  the  hostages  delivered  under  the 
treaty  made  in  September,  have  been  released  from  their 
captivity  and  sent  back  to  their  tribes. 

While  treaties  were  being  faithfully  performed  and  the 
Indians  pacified.  General  Harney  took  the  most  effectual 
means  of  providing  for  the  future  peace  of  Oregon  and  the 
safety  of  white  settlements  by  providing  for  cheap,  ready 
and  rapid  communication  between  Fort  Vancouver,  and 
the  Great  Salt  Lake.  To  that  end  he  detailed  an  efficient 
officer,  and  the  result  is  contained  in  his  dispatch  of 
November  29,  1858 : 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon, 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Nov.  29,  1858. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  enclose  a  report  from  Captain 

19 


290  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Ingalls,  assistant  quartermaster  at  this  place,  upon  the  ex- 
pediency, economy,  and  advantage  to  the  service  of  sup- 
plying the  department  of  Utah  from  depots  recommended 
to  be  established  at  Fort  Vancouver. 

The  report  includes  the  statements  of  several  reliable 
persons  of  Oregon  and  Washington  Territories,  with  a  table 
of  distances  from  Fort  Vancouver  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake 
City,  and  a  map  of  the  country  through  which  the  supplies 
must  pass. 

Upon  examining  the  map  of  the  country  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  the  country  connecting  it  with  Utah,  it  will  be 
seen  an  uninterrupted  chain  of  mountains  extends  along  the 
whole  coast  from  the  British  possessions  to  Lower  Califor- 
nia, rendering  access  to  the  interior  country  extremely  dif- 
ficult, and  in  many  places  impossible.  In  Washington  and 
Oregon  Territories  this  chain  of  mountains  is  called  the 
Cascade  range  of  mountains,  while  in  California  it  is  termed 
by  its  Spanish  name,  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

The  bold  and  astonishing  action  of  the  Columbia  river 
in  forcing  its  way  directly  through  the  Cascade  range  of 
mountains  in  almost  a  straight  line  to  the  ocean  has  made 
the  passage  of  this  chain  of  mountains  from  Fort  Van- 
couver extremely  simple  and  easy.  The  only  land  travel 
which  is  now  required  to  pass  beyond  the  Cascade  moun- 
tains from  this  point  is  over  the  two  portages :  one  at  the 
Cascades  of  five  miles,  the  other  at  the  Dalles  of  fifteen 
miles  ;  at  each  portage  there  is  now  a  good  wagon  road. 
The  river  is  then  na\'igable  for  good-sized  steamers  as  high 
up  as  Fort  Walla-Walla,  and  for  smaller  craft,  the  Snake 
river  can  be  navigated  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Pelouse 
river. 

Again  referring  to  the  map,  we  perceive  a  great  basin  or 
plain  extending  up  the  Snake  river  from  the  Columbia 
river  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  This  plain  is  watered  by 
numerous  streams,  and  the  country  is  represented  to  be 
well  wooded,  with  excellent  grass. 

All  reports  agree  in  stating  that  several  good  wagon 
routes  can  be  made  through  this  plain  from  the  Columbia 
river  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake  City.  The  emigrant  route 
from  Fort  Mall  to  the  Dalles  is  at  present  a  good  road. 

The   distance  to   be  passed  over  by  land   from  the   pro- 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON. 


291 


posed  depot  at  Umatilla  to  the  Salt  Lake  City  is  estimated 
at  614  miles,  but  I  have  been  informed  that  a  good  route 
one  hundred  miles  shorter  can  be  made  from  the  Des 
Chutes  river,  passing  to  the  head  of  the  Malheur  river, 
down  the  valley  of  that  river  to  the  Snake  river.  This 
route  would  place  Salt  Lake  City  514  miles  from  the  Dalles, 
at  which  point  the  depots  of  trans-shipment  in  wagons 
should  be  placed. 

Another  great  consideration  in  favor  of  this  route  is, 
that  it  can  be  travelled  at  all  seasons  of  the  year ;  and  I 
am  credibly  informed  that  the  month  of  February  is  the 
best  time  to  travel  it,  as  the  grasses  are  then  most  flour- 
ishing. My  own  evidence  at  this  place  supports  this  asser- 
tion, as  the  grass  here  at  this  time  is  as  green  and  fresh  as 
it  is  found  in  the  Western  States  in  May. 

The  Sierra  Nevada  range  of  mountains  of  California 
cannot  be  crossed  in  safety  with  wagons  before  July;  and 
it  is  well  known  supplies  cannot  be  sent  from  Fort  Leaven- 
worth to  arrive  in  Utah  before  August  or  September. 

In  point  of  economy,  it  appears  that  ten  cents  per  pound 
from  the  Umatilla  or  Walla-Walla  to  Salt  Lake  City  would 
be  considered  a  high  price,  and  in  a  short  time  it  could  be 
done  much  cheaper.  From  New  York  to  Walla-Walla  the 
freight  on  supplies  is  not  quite  five  cents  per  pound. 
Entire  freight  from  New  York  to  Salt  Lake  would  then  be 
fifteen  cents,  and  probably  much  less.  Compare  these 
prices  with  the  heavy  expenses  the  government  has  been 
compelled  to  incur  during  the  past  year  for  the  transporta- 
tion of  supplies  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  Utah,  and  a  very 
large  margin  will  be  left  in  favor  of  the  route  under  con- 
sideration. 

The  country  to  the  west  and  north  of  the  Salt  Lake  is 
not  so  mountainous,  nor  does  it  present  the  difficulties  for 
obstruction  that  belong  to  the  country  to  the  east  of  it.  It 
is  accessible  at  all  seasons,  and  presents  a  military  feature 
as  regards  the  proposed  route  which  will  tend  to  modify 
the  necessity  tor  maintaining  a  large  force  in  Utah,  where 
all  the  elements  of  subsistence  are  wanting. 

Let  two  strong  garrisons  be  placed  on  the  route  ;  con- 
centrate a  force  of  two  or  three  thousand  men  in  the  de- 
partment of  Oregon;  let  the  Mormons  understand  that  this 


292  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

force  can  be  placed  in  their  midst  in  six  weeks  time,  at  any 
season,  and  they  will  be  very  careful  not  to  afford  any  occa- 
sion for  its  being  done.  The  army  in  Utah  can  then  be 
reduced  to  an  efficent  garrison. 

I  shall  cause  a  complete  and  thorough  exploration  to  be 
made  of  the  country  in  question  early  in  the  spring,  at  the 
same  time  directing  a  good  wagon  route  to  be  laid  out  in 
the  direction  of  Salt  Lake  City  to  the  limits  of  this  depart- 
ment. 

I  respectfully  recommend  to  the  general-in-chief,  and  to 
the  government,  the  earnest  consideration  of  this  subject, 
which  contains  such  important  results  to  the  interests  of 
the  military  service ;  for  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  physical 
features  above  enumerated  will  attract  public  attention  to 
their  advantages  in  favor  of  one  of  the  great  national  high- 
ways which  must  sooner  or  later  connect  the  Atlantic 
States  with  those  of  the  Pacific. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Coin))ia)idiug. 

The  Assistant  Adjutant  General, 

Headquarters  of  the  Army,  Neiv  York  City. 

During  this  winter,  while  he  was  making  these  wise  dis- 
positions for  the  efficiency  and  economy  of  the  military 
service  of  the  United  States,  one  of  those  occasions 
occurred  which  demand  of  the  soldier,  whether  commander 
of  rank  or  subaltern,  the  knowledge  of  rights  and 
duties,  as  well  as  the  necessity  of  demanding  and  sustain- 
ing them.  First  Lieutenant  Joshua  W.  Sill,  of  the  ord- 
nance, had  been  ordered  on  duty  at  Fort  Vancouver.  He 
was  the  only  and  consequently  the  ranking  officer  of  ord- 
nance. Lieutenant  Sill  had  been  ordered  on  the  specific 
duty  of  erecting  an  arsenal  at  Fort  Vancouver.  He  claimed 
the  allowances  of  an  office  and  fuel  under  general  orders 
No.  HI,  from  the  War  Department,  of  March  24,  1858, 
and  based  his  claim  upon  the  fact  that  being  the  only,  he 
was  the  senior  officer  of  the  ordnance.  General  Harney 
denied  his  applitation  : 


service  in  oregon.  293 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon,  1 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Dec.  2,  1858.    j 
Sir  :  Your  application  for  an  office  and  fuel,  under  para- 
gragh  III  of  general   orders  No.  3  from  the  War  Depart- 
ment of  ]\Iarch  24,    1858,  has  been  submitted  to  the  general 
commanding. 

As  the  orders  assigning  you  to  duty  in  this  department 
are  specific  in  naming  you  to  the  duty  of  erecting  an  arse- 
nal at  Fort  Vancouver,  the  general  commanding  does  not 
think  it  would  be  becoming  and  proper  to  separate  you 
from  those  duties  sufficiently  as  to  recognize  you  in  the 
light  of  senior  ordnance  officer  at  the  headquarters  of  this 
department,  as  contemplated  in  the  paragraph  of  the  order 
above  quoted. 

From  your  position  as  ordnance  officer  of  the   depot  at 
Fort  Vancouver   you  are  entitled    to    an    office    and    fuel, 
which  you  are  authorized   to  obtain  in  the  usual  manner  as 
the  service  requires  at  the  other  ordnance  stations. 
I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  PLEASONTON, 
Captain  2d  Dragoons,  A.  Asst.  Adj't.  General, 
First  Lieutenant  J.  W.  Sill, 

Ordnance  Department,  Fort  Vancouver,  W.    T. 

To  this  communication  Lieutenant  Sill  replied  in  lan- 
guage which  the  General  construed  to  be  disrespectful  and 
subversive  of  good  order  and  discipline.  The  consequences 
were  that  he  preferred  charges  against  him  and  ordered 
him  in  arrest.  At  the  same  time  he  offered  to  Lieutenant 
Sill  an  opportunity  to  recant  or  modify  his  language  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  commanding  General  might  dismiss 
the  charges  and  restore  him  to  duty.  Lieutenant  Sill,  how- 
ever, standing  upon  what  he  regarded  as  his  right  as  well  as 
duty,  refused  to  modify  his  language,  and  stated  that  he 
preferred  to  be  relieved  from  duty. 

The  charge  and  specification  are  as  follows : 

Charge. — Contempt  and  disrespect  to  his  superior  officer. 

Specification. — In  this:  that  he.  First  Lieutenant  Joshua 

W.    Sill,  ordnance   department,  having  been   informed   by 


294  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

his  commanding  officer,  Brigadier  General  W.  S.  Harney, 
United  States  army,  commanding  the  department  of  Ore- 
gon, that  the  provisions  of  paragraph  3  of  General  Orders 
No.  3  from  the  War  Department,  of  March  24,  1858,  were 
not  applicable  to  him,  did  reply  in  a  communication  disre- 
spectful and  contemptuous;  accusing  his  commanding  offi- 
cer of  attempting  to  place  on  him,  the  said  Sill,  an  indig- 
nity, and  stating  that  his  self-respect  demanded  that  he 
should  appeal  to  the  chief  of  ordnance  for  redress. 

This  at  Fort  Vancouver,  Washington  Territory,  on  the 
3d  day  of  December,  1858. 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Comma?idi7ig. 
Witnesses : , 

Brigadier  General  W.  S.  Harney, 
Captain  A.  Pleasonton. 

General  Harney  found,  on  taking  command  of  the 
Department  of  Oregon,  that  the  troops  under  his  command 
had,  through  the  most  culpable  neglect,  been  unsupplied 
with  proper  clothing.  He  addressed  himself  to  the  duty 
of  seeing  them  provided. 

He  says  in  his  dispatch  to  General  Scott,  Assistant  Ad- 
jutant General : 

Head-quarters  Department  of  Oregon, 

Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Feb.  7,  18 ^g. 

Through  the  most  culpable  neglect,  beyond  my  power  ot 
investigation,  the  troops  of  this  command  have  been  de- 
prived of  the  proper  clothing  for  months  ;  and  the  men  are 
suffering  at  many  posts  for  want  of  overalls,  drawers,  stock- 
ings, shirts  and  shoes.  Requisition  upon  requisition  has 
been  sent  to  the  depots  at  San  Francisco  without  effect ; 
and  as  I  have  no  authority  to  institute  any  inquiry  to  elicit 
the  facts  concerning  this  strange  state  of  things,  I  respect- 
fully and  earnestly  request  that  orders  may  be  given  at  an 
early  date,  requiring  the  supplies  for  this  command  to  be 
sent  to  this  point  to  be  subject  to  the  action  of  officer^ 
under  my  exclusive  control. 

In  the  meantime,  the  road  to  Salt  Lake  by  way  of  Fort 
Dalles,  which  had  been  mentioned  and  recommended    by 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  295 

hin,  had  been  reconnoitered  and  marked  out  by  Captain 
Wallen.  Father  De  Smet  visited  the  various  tribes  of 
Indians,  and  by  his  influence  among  them  restored  peace 
•nd  effected  the  carrying  out  of  treaties.  The  services  of 
the  Reverend  Father  were  most  valuable  and  efficient,  and 
in  May,  1859,  accompanied  by  several  chiefs,  he  reported 
at  Fort  Vancouver;  among  others,  two  noted  chiefs,  leaders 
in  the  late  war,  Kamiakin  and  Schloom,  surrendered  them- 
selves to  the  government.  The  country  was  free  from 
Indian  depredations,  and  travel  became  safe  from  all  parts 
of  the  territory.     Father  De  Smet's  report  is  as  follows  : 

Fort  Vancouver,  May  25,  1859. 

Dear  Captain  :  Towards  the  end  of  last  March,  owing 
to  the  deep  snows  and  the  impracticableness  of  the  moun- 
tain passes,  I  received  your  kind  favor  of  the  1st  of  January 
of  the  present  year.  I  am  happy  that  my  request  to  the 
general,  concerning  the  bringing  down  to  Vancouver  a  dep- 
utation of  the  various  chiefs  of  the  upper  tribes,  met  with 
his  approval.  I  have  no  doubt,  from  the  happy  disposi- 
tions in  which  I  left  them  at  Walla-Walla,  the  gen- 
eral's advice  and  counsel  will  be  cheerfully  and  punctually 
followed  out  by  them,  and  will  prove  highly  beneficial  to 
their  respective  tribes,  and  consolidate  the  peace  estab- 
lished last  fall  by  Colonel  Wright. 

During  my  stay  among  the  Rocky  Mountain  Indians,  in 
the  long  and  dreary  winter,  from  the  2 1st  of  November 
last  until  the  end  of  April,  I  have  carried  out,  as  far  as  lay 
in  my  power,  the  instructions  of  the  general.  I  succeeded, 
I  think,  in  removing  many  doubts  and  prejudices  against 
the  intentions  of  government,  and  against  the  whites  gen- 
erally, which  were  still  lurking  in  the  minds  of  a  great 
number  of  the  most  influential  Indians.  I  held  frequent 
conversations  with  the  chieftains  of  the  Coeur  d'  Alenes, 
the  Spokanes,  several  of  the  Schuyelpees  or  Kettlefalls, 
and  lower  Kalispels,  who  had  chiefly  aided,  particularly  the 
two  first-mentioned  tribes,  in  their  lawless  and  savage 
attack  on  Colonel  Steptoe  and  in  their  war  with  Colonel 
Wright.  These  various  tribes,  with  the  exception  perhaps 
of  a  small  portion  of  lawless  Kettlefalls  Indians,  are  well 


296  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY, 

disposed,  and  will  faithfully  adhere  to  the  conditions  pre- 
scribed by  Colonel  Wright,  and  to  any  future  requests  and 
proposals  of  treaties  coming  from  government.  The  upper 
Pend  d'Orcilles,  the  Koetinays  and  Flatheads,  I  found,  as 
years  ago,  strong  friends  and  adherents  to  the  whites,  and  I 
have  every  reason  to  think  that  they  will  remain  faithful ; 
they  ever  glory,  and  truly,  that  not  a  drop  of  white  man's 
blood  has  ever  been  spilled  by  any  one  of  their  respective 
tribes.  When  I  proposed  to  them  that  from  each  tribe  a 
chief  should  accompany  me  down  to  Fort  Vancouver  to 
pay  their  respects  to  the  general  and  listen  to  his  advice, 
all  eagerly  consented,  and  they  kept  in  readiness  for  the 
long  journey  as  soon  as  the  snow  would  have  sufficiently 
disappeared.  Meanwhile  Major  Owen,  agent  among  the 
Flatheads,  arrived  at  St.  Ignatius'  Mission,  and  made 
known  to  me  that  he  had  received  orders  from  the  super- 
intendent of  Indian  affairs  and  from  Commissioner-Mot  to 
bring  down  to  Salem  a  chief  of  each  tribe  of  the  upper 
country.  Upon  this  declaration  I  persuaded  the  Indians 
that  as  Major  Owen  had  received  orders  from  the  highest 
authority  he  superseded  me,  and  they  should  look  upon 
him  as  their  leader  in  this  expedition,  whilst  I  would  fol- 
low on  with  them  as  far  as  practicable  and  I  would  be 
allowed. 

The  Major  having  brought  no  provisions  for  them,  I 
lodged  the  chiefs  in  my  own  tent,  and  provided  them  with 
all  the  necessary  supplies  from  the  i6th  of  April  until  the 
13th  instant,  the  day  on  which  we  reached  Walla-Walla, 
and  where  the  chiefs  were  liberally  provided  for  b}'  Captain 
Dent,  in  command  of  the  fort.  The  deputation  of  chiefs 
was  stopped  at  Walla-Walla  by  Major  Owen,  to  await  an 
express  he  had  sent  on  from  the  Spokane  prairie,  with 
instructions  to  the  superintendent  at  Salem.  My  own 
instructions  from  the  general,  according  to  your  letter  of 
the  1st  of  January,  "  to  return  to  Fort  Vancouver  as  early 
in  the  spring  as  practicable,  for  some  contingency  might 
arise  requiring  the  general's  presence  elsewhere,"  hurried 
me  down  in  compliance  with  said  order. 

With  regard  to  Kamiakin  and  his  brother,  Schloom,  I 
held  several  talks  with  tiicm  in  February,  March,  and 
April,  and  acquainted  them  with  the  general's  order,  wish, 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  297 

and  desire,  in  their  regard,  videlicet,  of  following  me,  and  of 
their  surrendering   into   his    hands,   assuring    them,   in   the 
general's  own  words,  that  "  the  government  is  always  gen- 
erous to  a  fallen  foe,  though  it  is  at  the  same  time  deter- 
mined  to  protect  its  citizens  in  every  part  of  its  territory," 
&c.     They  invariably   listened  with  attention  and   respect. 
Kamiakin  made  an  open  avowal  of  all  he  had  done  in  his 
wars  against  the  government  of  the  country,  particularly  in 
the  attack  on  Colonel  Steptoe,  and  in  the  war  with  Colonel 
Wright.     Kamiakin    stated    that    he  strongly    advised    his 
people  to  the  contrary,  but  was  at  last  drawn  into  the  con- 
test by  the  most  opprobrious  language  the  deceitful  Telga- 
wax  upbraided  him  with  in  full  council,  in  presence  of  the 
various     chiefs    of    the    Coeur     d'Alenes,     Spokanes,    and 
Pelouses.     Kamiakin  repeatedly  declared  to  me,  and  with 
the  greatest  apparent  earnestness,  that  he  never  was  a  mur- 
derer,  and,   whenever  he  could,  he  restrained    his    people 
against   all  violent  attacks  on  whites  passing  through   the 
country.     On  my  way  down  to  Vancouver,  from  St.   Igna- 
tius' Mission,  I  met  him  again,  near  Thompson's  prairie,  on 
Clark's  fork.     Kamiakin  declared  he  would  go  down  and 
follow  me  if  he  had  a  horse  to  ride,  his  own  not  being  in  a 
condition    to   undertake  a  long  journey.     I  had    none    to 
lend  him  at  that  moment.     At  my  arrival  in   the  Spokane 
prairie,  meeting  with  Gerry,  one  of  the  Spokane  chiefs,  I 
acquainted  him  with  the  circumstance,  and  entreated   him, 
for  the  sake  of  Kamiakin   and  his  poor  children,   to  send 
him   a  horse  and   an  invitation  to  come  on  and  to   accom- 
pany the  other  chiefs  to  Walla-Walla,  and  hence  to   Van- 
couver; the   best   opportunity   for  him   to   present   himself 
before  the  general  and   the  superintendent,  and  to   expose 
his  case  to  them  and  obtain  rest  and  peace.      Gerry  com- 
plied with  my  request,   and  Kamiakin  soon  presented  him- 
self and  joined   the  other    chiefs.      I  had   daily   conversa- 
tions with  him  until  we  reached  Walla-Walla.     He  places 
implicit   confidence    in    the    generosity  of  the  general.     I 
believe  him  sincere  in  his  repeated  declarations  that  hence- 
forth   nothing   shall   ever  be   able  to   withdraw   him  again 
from  the  path  of  peace;   or,  in  his  own  words,   "to  unbury 
and  raise  the  tomahawk  against  the  whites." 

My  candid  impression  is,  should  Kamiakin  be  allowed  to 


298  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

return  soon,  pardoned  and  free,  to  his  country,  it  will  have 
the  happiest  and  most  salutary  effect  among  the  upper 
Indian  tribes,  and  facilitate  greatly  all  future  transactions 
and  v^ews  of  government  in  their  regard.  The  Indians  are 
anxiously  awaiting  the  result;  I  pray  that  it  may  terminate 
favorably  with  Kamiakin.  The  sight  of  Kamiakin's  chil- 
dren, the  poverty  and  miser}''  in  which  I  found  them 
plunged,  drew  abundant  tears  from  my  eyes,  Kamiakin, 
the  once  powerful  chieftain,  who  possessed  thousands  of 
horses  and  a  large  number  of  cattle — he  has  lost  all,  and  is 
now  reduced  to  the  most  abject  poverty.  His  brother, 
Schloom,  if  he  lives,  will  come  in  in  the  course  of  summer. 
I  left  him  on  Clark's  fork,  sickly  and  almost  blind ;  he 
could  only  travel  by  small  journeys.  Telgawax,  a  Pelouse, 
I  think,  is  among  the  Buffalo  Nez  Perces ;  from  all  I  can 
learn  he  has  been  the  prime  mover  in  all  the  late  wars 
against  Colonel  Steptoe  and  Colonel  Wright.  His  influ 
ence  is  not  great,  but  he  remains  unceasing  in  his  endeav- 
ors to  create  bitter  feelings  against  the  whites  whenever  he 
can  meet  with  an  opportunity. 

With  the  highest  consideration  of  respect  and  esteem  for 
our  worthy  general  and  his  assistant  adjutant  general,  I 
remain,  dear  captain,  your  humble  and  obedient  servant, 

P.J.  DE  SMET,  S.J., 

Chaplain  U.  S.  A. 

A.  Pleasonton, 

Captain  2d  dragoons,  A.  A.  Adjutant  General. 

These  Indians  were  taken  in  custody  by  the  Indian 
agent,  and  their  detention  occasioned  distrust  on  the  part 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  good  faith  of  the  Government,  but 
General  Harney  promptly  interposed  for  their  protection. 

After  accomplishing  the  pacification  of  the  Indians, 
Father  De  Smet  was  sent  overland  through  the  various 
Indian  tribes  inhabiting  the  country  between  Oregon  and 
the  Missouri  River.     The  following  are  his  instructions  : 

Head-quarters  Department  of  Oregon, 

,  Fort  Vajicoiivcr,  IV.  T.,  June  i,  i8^g. 
My  Dear  Father  :  The  general   commanding  instructs 
me  to  enclose  a  copy  of  his  Special  Orders  No.  59,  of  this 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON. 


299 


date,  authorizing  you  to  return  to  St.  Louis  through  the 
different  tribes  of  the  interior,  which  you  are  so  desirous  to 
visit  once  again,  for  the  purpose  of  confirming  them  in  their 
good  disposition  towards  the  whites,  as  well  as  to  renew 
their  zeal  and  intelligence  in  the  elements  of  Christianity, 
the  means  so  signally  productive  of  good-will  and  confi- 
dence in  your  labors  of  the  past  winter  requiring  such  self- 
denial  and  resolution. 

On  your  arrival  in  St.  Louis  the  general  desires  you  to 
report  by  letter  to  the  Adjutant  General  at  Washington, 
when  your  relations  with  the  military  service  will  cease, 
unless  otherwise  ordered  by  the  War  Department. 

The  general  is  anxious  that  I  should  communicate  to 
you  the  deep  regret  with  which  he  feels  your  separation 
from  the  service,  and  in  making  the  announcement  he  is 
assured  the  same  feeling  extends  to  all  those  who  have  in 
any  way  been  associated  with  you. 

By  the  campaign  of  last  summer  submission  had  been 
conquered,  but  the  embittered  feelings  of  the  two  races 
excited  by  war  still  existed,  and  it  remained  for  you  to 
supply  that  which  was  wanting  to  the  sword.  It  was  nec- 
essary to  exercise  the  strong  faith  which  the  red  man  pos- 
sessed in  your  purity  and  holiness  of  character  to  enable 
the  general  to  evince  successfully  towards  them  the  kind 
intentions  of  the  government,  and  to  restore  confidence  and 
repose  to  their  minds.  This  has  been  done  ;  the  victory  is 
yours,  and  the  general  will  take  great  pleasure  in  recording 
your  services  at  the  War  Department.  For  such  services 
no  one  feels  more  sensibly  than  yourself  the  proper  ac- 
knowledgment is  linked  with  the  hopes  that  are  cherished 
in  the  fulfillment  of  a  Christian  duty. 

Satisfied  that  all  necessary  blessings  will  be  bestowed 
upon  you  in  whatever  sphere  of  duty  you  may  be  called  to 
serve,  the  general  will  always  be  happy  to  tender  you  the 
evidence  of  his  esteem  and  friendship. 

I  remain,  father,  with  the  highest  respect,  your  most 
obedient  servant, 

A.  PLEASONTON, 
Captain  2d  Dragoons,  Acting  Ass't  Adj't  General. 

Rev.  P.J.  DE  SMET,  S.  J., 

Chaplain,  &c.,  Fort  Vancotiver,  W.  T. 


300  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

During  the  summer  of  1859,  General  Harney  visited  the 
various  posts  in  his  department  and  examined  the  defences 
of  the  coast.  His  report  to  the  commander-in-chief  of 
July  19th  indicates  the  importance  of  providing  proper 
defences  for  Puget  Sound,  and  calls  the  attention  of  the 
War  Department  to  the  fact  that  there  was  no  ordnance 
heavier  than  a  six-pounder  to  be  had  in  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington Territories,  and  that  while  the  British  government 
kept  three  war  vessels  in  the  waters  along  the  coast  of 
their  possessions,  there  was  no  American  ship-of-war  nearer 
than  San  Francisco. 

While  on  this  tour  of  inspection,  General  Harney  paid  a 
visit  to  Victoria,  and  was  received  by  Governor  Douglas, 
of  British  Columbia,  with  every  mark  of  consideration  and 
respect. 

In  July,  1859,  General  Harney  found  it  necessary  to 
administer  a  severe  reprimand  to  First  Lieutenant  Henry 
V.  DeHart,  of  the  3d  artillery.  That  officer  called  upon 
Captain  Pleasonton,  the  Assistant  Adjutant  General,  and 
demanded  a  withdrawal  of  the  language  used  in  the  com- 
munication containing  the  reprimand,  and  insisted  he  would 
hold  him  personally  responsible  for  it.  Lieutenant  DeHart 
was  placed  in  arrest  and  charges  preferred  against  him. 
The  law  and  regulations  required  that  the  President  should 
call  a  general  court  martial  for  his  trial.  Before  the  court 
martial  was  ordered,  General  Scott,  the  commander-in-chief, 
interfered  by  ordering  Lieutenant  DeHart's  release  and 
return  to  duty.  This  interference  was  the  occasion  of  a 
bitter  correspondence,  and  the. commander-in-chief  indulged 
in  some  malignant  remarks  on  General  Ilarne\-'s  letter  to 
the  Secretary  of  War.  We  have  seen  in  his  conduct 
towards  General  Harney,  while  in  Mexico,  that  General 
Scott  missed  no  opportunity  to  do  him  injustice. 

The  letter  of  General  Harney  to  the  War  Department, 
with  General  Scott's  endorsement,  is  as  follows  : 


inm 


WM  ^^  r 


FATHER  DE  SMET. 


LINCOLN  GREETING  HARNEY. 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  3O3 


Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon,   \ 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  Dec.  9,  1859.      j 

Colonel:  I  have  the  honor  to  return  Colonel  Mar- 
chant's  communication  and  enclosure,  with  the  following 
explanation,  in  connection  with  the  enclosed  copies  of  let- 
ters from  these  headquarters  to  the  commander  of  Fort 
Vancouver,  dated  July  23  and  August  4.  1859. 

In  the  letter  of  July  23,  1859,  certain  enlisted  men  were 
directed  to  be  furloughed  at  dates  anterior  to  that  of  the 
communication,  for  the  reason  that  the  necessary  orders 
had  been  given  verbally,  at  the  proper  times,  but  were  mis- 
understood, and  these  men  were  improperly  reported  on 
extra  duty.  Such  reports  entitled  the  men  to  an  increase 
of  pay  to  which  they  had  no  just  claim,  and  as  soon  as  the 
facts  were  discovered  the  mistakes  were  corrected  by  the 
instructions  of  July  23.  The  post  return  of  Fort  Van- 
couver for  the  month  of  July,  1859,  is  correct.  A  copy  is 
enclosed,  and  any  reports  at  variance  with  this  should  be 
made  to  correspond. 

It  is  proper  on  this  occasion  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
War  Department  to  three  officers  whose  reports  Colonel 
Merchant  considers  irregular. 

First  Lieutenant  George  Ihrie,  who  temporarily  com- 
manded "B"  and  "D"  companies,  has  since  tendered  his 
resignation,  and  I  trust,  for  the  honor  of  the  service,  it  has 
been  accepted.  This  resignation  was  hastened  by  the  fact 
of  an  officer  having  testified  before  the  general  court-mar- 
tial which  assembled  for  the  trial  of  First  Lieutenant 
Lyman  M.  Kellog,  3d  artillery,  that  he  would  not  believe 
Lieutenant  Ihrie  under  oath,  in  any  matter  in  which  he  was 
at  all  interested. 

The  general  opinion  of  Lieutenant  Ihrie's  character,  with 
those  in  the  service  who  know  him,  is  but  little  better  than 
that  above  recorded. 

The  second  officer,  who  was  commanding  company 
"A,"  3d  artillery,  in  the  month  of  July,  1859,  is  First 
Lieutenant  Lyman  M.  Kellog.  He  has  since  been  tried 
for  drunkenness  on  San  Juan  island.  The  proceedings 
in  his  case  were  sent  direct  to  the  Adjutant  General 
by  the   court,   and,   from   the   heinousness  of  his  offences, 


304  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

he  has  doubtless  been  sentenced  to  be  dismissed  the 
service. 

The  third  officer  referred  to  by  Colonel  Merchant  is  First 
Lieutenant  Henry  V.  De  Hart,  who  only  reported  for  duty 
in  this  department  on  the  loth  day  of  July  last,  and  was 
placed  in  arrest  on  the  31st  of  that  month. 

The  short  space  of  twenty  days  was  sufficient  for  Lieu- 
tenant De  Hart  to  develop  his  character. 

He  began  by  writing  an  impertinent  and  disrespectful 
communication  to  his  commander,  myself,  which  was 
returned  to  him  three  times  by  my  orders,  for  which  he 
insulted  my  staff  officer,  Captain  Pleasonton,  attempting  to 
hold  him  responsible  for  my  acts,  and  charging  him  with 
shielding  himself  behind  his  official  position  after  insulting 
liiin. 

Charges  have  been  duly  preferred  against  Lieutenant  De 
Hart  for  this  conduct,  and  were  submitted  to  the  War 
Department  for  its  action.  Nothing  since  has  been  heard 
from  them  ;  but  on  the  arrival  of  Lieutenant  General  Scott, 
he  informed  me  the  charges  would  not  be  entertained  by 
the  War  Department,  and  requested  me  to  release  Lieu- 
tenant De  Hart  from  arrest. 

I  replied  to  the  general-in-chief,  through  his  staff  officer, 
that  I  could  not  consent  to  the  release  of  Lieutenant  De 
Hart,  as  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  maintain  discip- 
line if  such  outrageous  conduct  was  permitted  to  pass 
unnoticed. 

The  general-in-chief  then  gave  me  a  peremptory  order 
to  release  Lieutenant  De  Hart  from  arrest.  A  copy  of  this 
order  is  enclosed. 

I  have  now  the  honor  to  forward  these  charges  against 
Lieutenant  De  Hart,  for  the  consideration  of  his  excellency 
the  President  of  the  United  States  ;  at  the  same  time  I 
submit  my  protest  to  the  action  of  Lieutenant  General 
Scott  in  this  case,  for  the  following  reasons,  viz  : 

First.  It  is  seriously  impairing  the  force  of  a  vital  mili- 
tary principle  established  for  the  government  of  the  army 
in  reference  to  staff  officers,  in  admitting  the  conduct  of 
Lieutenant  De  Hart  to  be  wanting  in  offence,  or  not  in 
express  violation  of  the  rules  of  war  and  the  custom  of 
our  service,    by    claiming  responsibility    on  the  part  of  a 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON,  3O5 

staff  officer  for  the  orders  of  his  commander.  In  jus- 
tice to  the  army,  Lieutenant  De  Hart  should  be  brought 
to  trial. 

Second.  The  act  of  Congress  of  the  29th  of  May,  1830, 
sections  I  and  2,  reads  as  follows  : 

"  Whenever  a  general  officer  commanding  an  army,  or  a 
colonel  commanding  a  separate  department,  shall  be  the 
accuser  or  prosecutor  of  any  officer  in  the  army  of  the 
United  States  under  his  command,  the  general  court-martial 
for  the  trial  of  such  officer  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States. 

"  The  proceeding  and  sentence  of  the  said  court  shall  be 
sent  directly  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  to  be  by  him  laid 
before  the  President  for  his  confirmation  or  approval,  or 
orders  in  the  case." 

This  act  of  Congress  deprives  the  general-in-chief  of  any 
action  in  a  case  where  the  commander  of  a  military  depart- 
ment is  the  accuser  of  an  officer  in  his  command,  and 
restricts  the  exercise  of  that  power  to  the  President  in 
such  cases.  The  general-in-chief,  being  deprived  of  the 
power  of  instituting  a  legal  examination,  is  necessarily 
deprived  by  the  law  of  the  power  of  acquittal  or  interfer- 
ence under  the  same  circumstances.  For  Lieutenant  Gen- 
eral Scott  to  order  the  release  of  Lieutenant  De  Hart,  in 
opposition  to  my  remonstrances,  and  before  the  action  of 
the  President  had  been  duly  published,  was  an  illegal  and 
'arbitrary  exercise  of  power,  prejudicial  to  the  service  by 
tending  to  lessen  my  influence  and  authority  over  the 
troops  of  this  command. 

The  necessity  for  the  law  above  quoted  is  bbvious  when 
we  consider  the  facilities  such  power  would  give  a  weak 
or  envious  commander-in-chief  to  injure  an  army  in  the 
field  or  separate  military  department  in  effecting  purposes 
of  his  own  detrimental  to  the  honor  and  dignity  of  the 
service. 

The  law  having  assigned  to  the  President  the  duty  of 
deciding  in  the  case  of  difficulty  between  myself,  as  the 
commander  of  this  department,  and  an  officer  of  my  com- 
mand, I  respectfully  request  that  the  proper  legal  investiga- 
tion by  court-martial  may  be  instituted  in  the  case  of 
Lieutenant  De  Hart,  as  the  only  available  means  of  main- 


306  LIFE  OF  GENHXIM.   HARNEY. 

taining  discipline,  and  at  the  same  time  rendering  justice  to 
the  parties  concerned. 

I  am,  Colonel,  very   respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  comviandiug. 
Colonel  S.  Cooper, 

Adjiita7it  General,  U.  S.  Army,  Washington   City,  D.  C, 

Remarks 

On  Brigadier  General  Harney's  letter  to  the  Secretary  of 
War,  dated  December  9,  1859,  which  the  Secretary  has 
courteously  caused  to  be  sent  to  me,  evidently  against  the 
wishes  of  the  writer. 

This  act  of  the  Secretary,  with  the  rebuke  that  went 
direct  from  him  to  Brigadier  General  H.,  on  the  7th  inst., 
may,  it  is  hoped,  somewhat  disabuse  the  latter  of  the  be- 
sotted notion  that  he  and  his  principal  staff  officer  will  be 
supported  at  Washington,  no  matter  what  blunder  eitlier 
of  them  may  officially  commit. 

At  the  foot  of  page  3  the  brigadier  general  says  that  I 
had  informed  him  his  charges  against  Lieutenant  De  Hart 
"would  not  be  entertained  by  the  War  Department." 
This  is  an  error  with  a  motive.  What  I  did  say,  or  author- 
ized Lieutenant  Colonel  Thomas  to  say  in  my  behalf,  was 
simply  this :  that  from  some  slight  allusion  to  the  charges 
against  Lieutenant  De  H.,  volunteered  b}'  the  acting  Sec- 
retary of  War,  in  conversation  with  me  at  my  last  visit  to 
Washington,  I  thought  it  doubtful  whether  a  court  would 
be  ordered  for  the  trial  of  the  lieutenant  on  those  charges ; 
and  in  the  meantime,  as  the  lieutenant's  services  were 
needed,  I  wished  the  brigadier  general  to  suspend  the 
arrest,  and  to  have  the  credit  of  doing  a  generous  act.  But 
this  was  not  to  his  taste,  which  satisfied  me  that  his  object 
was  not  discipline,  but  voigeance.  Hence  I  ordered  the 
suspension  myself,  and  added,  expressly,  in  the  order,  that 
in  case  the  War  Department  should  appoint  a  court  for  the 
trial  of  the  lieutenant,  his  arrest  could  then  be  renewed. 
Indeed,  from  the  beginning  I  was  surprised  that  the  pros- 
ecutor should  desire  to  place  his  charges  before  a  court,  as, 
to  me,  it  appeared  certain  that  the  accused  would  not  be 
the  greater  sufferer  by  an  investigation. 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  3O7 

In  the  next  (4th)  page  of  the  letter  the  brigadier-general 
protests  (/)  against  that  temporary  release  of  the  accused, 
on  two  grounds  : 

1.  That  the  suspension  of  the  arrest  "  seriously  impaired 
the  force  of  a  vital  military  principle,"  &c.  There  might 
be  some  little  sense  or  application  in  this  ground  of  protest 
if  I  had  pardoned,  or  attempted  to  pardon,  Lieutenant  De 
Hart  before  trial ;  but  it  is  utter  nonsense  when  it  is  recol- 
lected that  my  order  in  the  case  did  nothing  that  could 
delay  a  trial  for  a  moment,  or  cripple,  in  the  case  of  guilt, 
the  ultimate  vengeance  of  the  law,  but  only  relieved  him 
from  the  private  vengeance  of  his  prosecutor  or  prosecutors 
until  a  court  could  take  him  in  hand. 

Under  this  same  head  something  is  said  about  a  "  viola- 
tion of  the  rules  of  war  and  the  custom  of  our  service." 
According  to  these  it  is  quite  common  to  suspend  the 
arrest  of  an  officer  in  the  long  absence  of  any  court,  or  to 
meet  an  exigency  of  the  service,  and  I  had  the  two  motives 
in  my  act,  as  well  as  a  third,  viz  :  to  relieve  a  meritorious 
young  officer  from  the  persecution  of  his  prosecutors. 

2.  The  second  ground  of  protest  set  forth  by  the  briga- 
dier-general is  as  curious  as  it  is  malignant.  He  cites  the 
act  of  May  29,  1850 — a  law  expressly  intended  to  protect 
the  prosecuted  against  trial  by  courts  appointed  by  prose- 
cutors, (!)  as  if  it  could  have  any  possible  bearing  on  my 
act  in  the  case  under  consideration  ;  for  I  neither  appointed 
a  court  nor  placed  the  lieutenant  beyond  the  reach  of  his 
prosecutor;  and  yet  that  act  is  treated  as  an  acquittal  "of 
the  accused  before  trial  or  before  the  action  of  the  Pres- 
ident ! "  But,  again,  this  blundering  was  not  without  a 
motive.  It  is  used  as  a  vehicle  for  insinuation  against  "  a 
weak  or  envious  (!)  commander-in-chief,"  having  "  pur- 
poses of  his  own  detrimental  to  the  honor  and  dignity  of 
the  service  !  " 

In  the  several  quotations  from  the  letter  in  question,  it  is 
plainly  seen  \vhy  the  letter  was  clandestinely  sent  (over  my 
head)  to  Washington,  against  the  prescribed  and  indispen- 
sable rules  of  military  correspondence. 

In  dismissing  this  most  nauseating  subject,  I  beg  permis- 
sion to  add,  that  the  highest  obligations  of  my  station  com- 
pel me  to  suggest  a  doubt  whether  it  be  safe  in  respect  to 


308  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

our  foreign  relations,  or  just  to  the  gallant  officers  and  men 
in  the  Oregon  department,  to  leave  them  longer,  at  so  great 
a  distance,  subject  to  the  ignorance,  passion,  and  caprice  of 
the  present  headquarters  of  that  department. 

Respectfully  submitted  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

WINFIELD  SCOTT. 

New  York,  February  14,   i860. 

Lieutenant  De  Hart  was  released  by  orders  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  War,  February  7,  i860,  and  subsequently  became 
the  author  of  an  excellent  treatise  on  the  law  of  courts 
martial. 

In  vindication  of  General  Harney's  action  toward  Lieuten- 
ant De  Hart  and  his  quondam  friend  Ihrie,  whose  efforts  have 
been  to  make  themselves  more  conspicuous  than  useful  to 
the  country,  the  following  letter  from  General  Ingalls  to 
General  Harney,  referring  to  the  conduct  of  the  latter  while 
in  command  on  the  Pacific  coast,  will  be  found  of  the 
greatest  interest. 

Headquarters  Military  Division  of  the  Missouri, 
Chicago,  Illinois,  May  19,  187S. 

My  Dear  General  :  I  was  greatly  rejoiced  to  receive 
your  letter  the  15th  ult.  I  have  been  moving  rapidly  of 
late,  and  just  settled  down  to  duty  at  these  headquarters. 
I  mention  this  simply  to  account  for  the  delay. 

I  do  not  recollect  that  De  Hart  wrote  a  book.  It  is  cer- 
tain I  never  saw  it,  and  I  hope,  out  of  respect  to  his  mem- 
ory and  the  truth,  he  made  no  assertion  that  you  compelled 
soldiers  to  work  on  your  farm  at  Fort  Vancouver  against 
their  will,  and  for  your  private  benefit.  If  such  statements 
were  made,  they  were  made  recklessly  and  maliciously.  I 
was  present  and  was  perfectly  familiar  with  what  actually 
took  place  in  the  premises. 

When  you  arrived  at  Vancouver  you  took  quarters  at 
the  post,  which  was  then  commanded  by  the  late  Colonel 
Thompson  Morris,  of  the  4th  Infantry,  a  genial  and  gallant 
soldier,  but  not  at  all  strict  as  to  discipline,  a  fact  which 
you  would  not  fail  to  discover.  In  attempting  to  infuse  an 
increased  efficiency  by  causing  recitations,  drills  and   pa- 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  3O9 

rades,  you  incurred  the  displeasure  of  several  young  offi- 
cers who  felt  themselves  aggrieved  by  your  interference, 
and  sought  every  pretext  to  annoy  you.  There  was  a 
scarcity  of  quarters  at  the  post,  and  you  were  desirous  of 
taking  yours  outside,  if  suitable  accommodations  could  be 
created.  Acting  partly  on  this  desire,  and  partly  for  pleas- 
ant occupation  and  exercise,  you  conceived  the  plan  of 
clearing  a  piece  of  ground  on  the  heights  beyond  Dundas 
Castle  and  building  thereon  a  modest,  inexpensive  estab- 
lishment to  be  occupied  by  yourself  and  Captain  (now  Gen- 
eral) Pleasonton.  To  that  end  you  issued  short  furloughs 
or  leaves  of  absence  to  certain  soldier-mechanics  and  la- 
borers, in  the  absence  of  civilian  help,  and  employed  and 
paid  them  as  a  private  citizen.  You  worked  daily  with 
them  yourself,  personally  using  the  ax,  hatchet,  hammer 
and  saw.  The  men,  of  course,  were  well  pleased  and  ben- 
efited, and  no  public  outlay  was  made  in  any  way,  nor  pub- 
lic detriment  occasioned.  Young  De  Hart  commanded  a 
company,  and  he  and  Ihrie,  perhaps  more,  made  the  order 
of  furloughing  the  men  a  pretext  for  ill-timed,  incorrect 
and  unsoldierly  criticisms  on  your  course,  on  their  morning 
reports.  Arrests  followed,  appeals  were  made,  through 
irregular  channels,  to  your  old-time  enemy.  General  Scott, 
who  did  not  fail  still  to  be  a  bitter  enemy.  They  tried  to 
defeat  and  prostrate  all  your  measures  to  secure  discipline 
and  the  prompt  performance  of  military  duties.  You  were 
relieved  and  ordered  to  Washington  before  you  had  time 
to  consummate  necessary  reforms ;  but  had  you  remained 
six  months  longer,  with  proper  support,  you  would  then 
have  left  the  department  in  excellent  condition.  I  wish  to 
declare  that  your  entire  administration  in  the  now  Depart- 
ment of  the  Columbia  was  energetic,  wise,  considerate,  un- 
selfish, and  for  the  public  interest  alone. 

Your  determination  to  occupy  the  island  of  San  Juan 
in  1859,  "^^''^s  adopted  on  the  application  of  the  citizens  of 
that  island,  after  a  personal  inspection  and  mature  delib- 
eration. There  was  but  one  British  subject  on  the  island, 
and  he  was  there  simply  in  the  capacity  of  herder.  It  was 
clearly  manifest,  as  it  is  now,  that  the  island  belonged  to 
us.  You  occupied  and  held  it  against  all  the  threats  of  the 
British  officials,  and  until  all  peril  of  collision  was  entirely 


3IO  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

past.  Had  your  conduct  been  sustained,  we  should  have 
been  in  uninterrupted  possession,  and  have  been  spared  the 
humiHating  spectacle  of  a  joint  occupancy,  tiresome 
diplomatic  intrigues,  and  years  of  delay.  It  was  notorious 
that  there  would  be  no  fight  for  the  island  on  the  part  of 
England.  But  a  weak  and  vacillating  administration  sent 
your  old  enemy  out,  who  was  bound  in  malice,  if  for  no 
better  reason,  to  undo  what  you  had  done.  The  result  is 
known  to  all  who  read  history.  The  British  got  the  better 
of  us,  as  they  did  in  the  settlement  of  the  northeastern  as 
well  as  northwestern  boundaries. 

I  am  happy  to  know  that  you  stand  your  years  so  bravely 
and  nobly.  May  they  yet  be  many.  I  have  much  to  thank 
you  for.  You  were  kind  to  me  when  I  was  a  Lieutenant  of 
dragoons  in  Louisiana,  33-5  years  ago,  and  many  a  time 
since. 

Very  respectfully,  your  sincere  friend, 

RUFUS  INGALLS, 
Brevet  Major  General,   U.  S.  Army. 

General  Wm.  S.  Harney, 

U.  S.  Army,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

So  completely  had  the  Indians  been  pacified  through 
the  good  offices  of  Father  De  Smet  and  the  active  and 
efficient  measures  of  General  Harney,  that  the  emigration 
to  Oregon  during  the  summer  of  1859  continued  to  pour 
into  the  territory.  The  road  surveyed  and  cut  out  by  Cap- 
tain Wallen  had  opened  a  convenient  and  safe  passage 
from  Salt  Lake,  while  the  troops  engaged  in  that  duty 
gave  assurance  of  protection.  In  September  a  party  of 
emigrants  at  Grande  Ronde  took  occasion  gracefully  to 
acknowledge  their  obligations  to  the  commanding  General 
of  the  department  in  the  following: 

Grande  Ronde,  Oregon,  September  30,  1859. 
Sir:  We  desire,  through  you,  to  express  our  acknowl- 
edgments to  General  Harney,  commanding  in  the  State  of 
Oregon  and  in  Washington  Territory,  for  the  protection 
extended  by  him  to  the  large  emigration  that  has  just 
passed  through  a  hostile  Indian  country.     The  Indians  had 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  3II 

avowed  their  determination  not  to  allow  the  emigrants  to 
pass  through  without  committing  acts  of  violence,  but  the 
general's  troops  were  ready  to  meet  us  hundreds  of  miles 
from  the  Columbia  river,  and  protect  the  lives  of  our  wives 
and  children. 

We  cannot  take  leave  of  you,  captain,  without  present- 
ing our  thanks  for  your  uniform  kindness  to  us  along  the 
route,  for  supplying  provisions  and  transportation  to  those 
families  who  were  destitute,  and  for  waiting  patiently  with 
us  on  the  road  until  all  have  passed  safely  into  the  settle- 
ments. For  these  and  the  many  other  acts  of  courtesy 
from  yourself  and  the  officers  and  soldiers  under  your  com- 
mand, be  pleased  to  accept  our  gratitude. 

NICOLAS  DUPUIS, 
WILSON  SMITH, 
JACOB  GOYETTE, 
JOHN  J.  NYE, 
JOSEPH  HEMIOT, 
S.  C.  DORO, 
FRANCIS  GOYETTE, 
E.  WARD, 

NICOLAS  DUPUIS,  Jr. 
Captain  Wallen, 

U.  S.  Army,  commanding  troops  on  Snake  river. 

In  October  of  that  year,  the  results  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
commanding  General  in  sending  Father  De  Smet  through 
the  Indian  country,  manifested  itself,  and  the  General  re- 
ceived the  following  letter : 

St.  Louis  University,  October  5,  1859. 
Dear  Captain  :  I  hope  my  letters  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  will  have  reached  you  in  due  time.  They  con- 
tained nothing  of  very  particular  interest.  I  reached  Fort 
Benton,  on  the  jMissouri,  on  the  29th  of  July  last,  eleven 
days  after  the  departure  of  the  steamer  "  Chippeway." 
All  appeared  to  be  quiet  among  the  Blackfeet.  I  found 
about  two  hundred  lodges  of  Gros  Ventres  and  Indians  of 
various  bands  camped  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort.  I  held 
several  conferences  with  them  of  a  peaceful  and  religious 
nature,  during  which  they  seemingly  paid  the  utmost  atten- 
tion and  respect. 


312  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Since  the  treaty  made  by  Governors  Stevens  and  Cum- 
mings  they  have  strictly  adhered  to  all  its  stipulations;  and 
fair  hopes,  I  think,  may  be  entertained  of  the  continuance 
of  their  good  will  towards  the  whites. 

I  left  Rev.  F.  Hoecken  among  the  Blackfeet,  who  is  to 
commence  a  missionary  establishment  in  their  midst,  with 
the  approbation  and  apparently  to  the  great  satisfaction  of 
all  the  Indians  of  this  upper  region.  Fr.  Hoecken  has 
great  hopes  of  its  success. 

At  my  arrival  at  Fort  Benton  my  Indian  horses  had 
pretty  nigh  given  out ;  their  backs  were  sore  and  their 
hoofs  much  worn,  which  made  me  determine  on  returning 
to  St.  Louis  by  way  of  the  Missouri  river.  I  ordered  the 
construction  of  a  skiff  and  hired  three  young  men  to  assist 
me  in  my  downward  course,  adding  a  fourth  one  to  the 
number  to  act  as  interpreter,  pilot  and  hunter. 

]\Iy  long  trip  has  been  most' happy  and  prosperous.  I 
found  the  whole  country  quiet,  with  an  abundance  and  a 
great  variety  of  game,  of  which  we  gladly  availed  ourselves 
as  a  pleasant  relief  both  to  body  and  mind. 

I  left  Fort  Benton  on  the  evening  of  the  3d  of  August 
and  reached  Fort  Union  on  the  i6th,  having  been  detained 
for  about  two  days  by  rain  and  contrary  wind.  Here  I 
met  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  lodges  of  well-disposed 
Assiniboins,  in  whose  camp  I  passed  a  whole  day,  con- 
firming them  in  their  submission  to  the  government  and  in 
their  good  will  to  all  their  white  brethren. 

On  the  22d  I  reached  Fort  Berthold,  where  I  visited  all 
the  Minatarees  or  Gros  Ventres  of  the  Missouri,  the  little 
remaining  band  of  Mandans  and  se\Leral  lodges  of  Crow 
Indians.  All  were  very  friendly  and  attentive  to  every- 
thing I  said,  and  appeared  to  be  very  desirous  to  keep  on 
the  best  of  terms  with  the  whites  ;  like  their  neighbors,  (the 
Assiniboins,)  they  expressed  to  me  a  great  desire  to  estab- 
lish missions  amongst  them. 

On  the  24th,  at  Fort  Clarke,  I  found  the  Rees  or  Rica- 
rees  in  their  old  village.  They  were  mourning  over  the 
loss  of  nine  killed  and  a  great  number  wounded.  A  nu- 
merous war  party  of  Sioux  (over  five  hundred  strong)  had 
recently  attacked  and  defeated  them.  They  were  prejjar- 
ing  for  revenge  and  retaliation,  but  I  advised  them,  being 


SERVICE  IN  OREGON.  3I3 

the  weakest  party,  not  to  expose  themselves  and  not  to 
provoke  further  the  Sioux,  who  might  speedily  visit  them 
again,  with  an  increase  of  numbers,  being  too  powerful 
for  them.  They  besought  me  then  to  see  the  Sioux  on  my 
way  down,  and  to  sue  for  peace  in  their  favor.  I  gave 
them  some  good  and  salutary  advice,  which  they  badly 
needed,  and  prosecuted  my  journey. 

On  the  1st  of  September  I  arrived  at  Fort  Pierre.  The 
Two-kettle  band  of  Siou.K,  with  a  great  number  of  Brules, 
Yanctons,  and  Yanctonnais,  etc.,  were  encamped  in  the 
prairie  between  the  two  forts.  They  were  just  receiving 
the  long  coming  and  beautiful  uniform?  of  the  general. 
On  the  next  day  some  sixty  or  seventy  horsemen  made 
a  grand  display — md  truly  they  looked  well  in  their  new 
dress.  They  paid  me  a  particular  visit  and  honored  me 
with  a  salute.  I  took  occasion  to  explain  to  them  the 
character  of  a  true  soldier — the  motives,  why  their  great 
father,  the  President,  at  the  particular  request  of  his  great 
general,  had  sent  them  this  uniform  and  sword.  I  express- 
ed the  hope  that  thenceforth,  under  the  protection  of  this 
fine  band  of  chiefs  and  soldiers,  in  whose  promises  the 
greatest  confidence  had  been  placed,  the  white  men  would 
no  longer  be  molested  and  the  whole  country  remain  quiet. 
All  their  speeches  and  answers,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
were  very  favorable  and  no  doubt  sincere.  Certain  it  is 
that  the  imposing  uniform  pleased  them  very  much.  May 
they  keep  their  word  !  Whilst  with  them  I  fulfilled  my 
promises  to  the  Ricarees,  and  made  known  that  I  came 
from  their  enemies  as  a  messenger  of  peace. 

You  know  with  what  ease   such  messages   are   received 
,  and  accepted,  and  how  soon  they  may  be  forgotten  again 
by  these  poor  children  of  nature  ;  however,  they  seemed  to 
be  in  real  good  earnest  on  the  occasion. 

On  the  9th  of  September  I  stopped  a  few  hours  at  Fort 
Randall  and  dined  with  Colonel  Monroe,  in  charge  of  the 
beautiful  little  post.,  The  colonel  had  the  great  kindness 
to  provide  me  with  all  the  necessary  little  articles  for  my 
journey. 

On  the  i6th  I  arrived  in  Omaha  City,  where  I  left  my 
little  skiff  and  went  on  board  the  steamer  Thom.  E.  Tudd. 
We  landed,  at  last,  safe  and  sound,  on  the  23d  of  Septcm- 


314  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

ber,  in  the  harbor  of  St.  Louis,  and  in  the  midst  of  my 
old  friends  and  acquaintances. 

Sleeping  in  a  house,  after  a  couple  of  nights,  seemed  to 
prostrate  me  completely,  and  I  was  obliged  to  keep  my 
bed  for  several  days  under  the  influence  of  a  pretty  severe 
fever;  this  prevented  me  from  sending  you  sooner  my  little 
communication.  I  have  sent  in  my  resignation  to  govern- 
ment, as  directed,  and  hope  to  receive  soon  an  affirmative 
answer  to  that  effect. 

I  shall  ever  gratefully  remember  the  great  kindness  I 
have  received  whilst  in  the  army  from  the  general  and  from 
his  worthy  assistant  adjutant  general,  and  shall  daily  be- 
seech heaven,  in  my  poor  prayers,  for  their  prosperity  and 
happiness;  happy  indeed  should  I  ever  have  it  in  my  power 
to  make  a  suitable  return. 

Please  present  my  best  respects  to  the  general,  and  re- 
ceive, dear  captain,  the  acknowledgment  of  my  most  pro- 
found respect  and  esteem. 

Most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant  and  friend, 

P.J.  DE  SMET,  S./. 
A.  Plasonton, 

Captain  2d  Dragoons,  A.  A.  A.  G.,  Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T. 

It  is  due  General  Harney  to  state  that  his  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  the  Indian  character,  and  his  sagacity  in  adapting 
his  measures  to  their  wants  and  peculiarities,  rendered  him 
the  most  eminently  successful  of  the  American  officers  who 
were  assigned  to  command  on  the  frontiers.  In  his  inter- 
course with  them  he  had  one  rule,  and  that  was  the  rule  of 
honesty  and  good  faith.  His  intimate  relations  with  Father 
De  Smet,  and  the  wisdom  and  advice  of  the  Jesuit  Father, 
confirmed  him  in  his  theory,  and  enabled  him  practically  to 
enforce  his  sound  and  honest  theories.  In  his  dispatches 
from  Puget's  Sound,  where  he  had  a  chance  to  see  the 
effect  of  a  similar  policy  carried  out  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment with  their  Indians,  he  calls  attention  to  the  supe- 
rior management  of  the  English  and  its  good  results. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES    EXPLAINED. 

\_I-/HE  following   account    of  the    Island    of    San    Juan^ 
I      taken  from  the   official   publications  of  the  Govern- 
ment, is  proper  to  an  understanding  of  the  situation 
of  things  when  General  Harney  took  command  of  the  De- 
partment of  Oregon. 

The  first  permanent  occupation  of  the  island  of  San  Juan 
was  effected  on  the  i6th  day  of  December,  1853,  by  the 
landing  from  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  steamer  "  Beav- 
er "  of  a  flock  of  1,300  sheep,  under  charge  of  Mr.  Charles 
J.  Griffin,  then  a  clerk,  now  a  chief  trader  in  the  company's 
service,  and  who  has  ever  since  remained  on  the  island  in 
charge  of  their  property  interests.  The  place  had,  how- 
ever, been  frequented  the  three  previous  years  as  a  fishing 
station  ;  the  fishing  parties  were  respectively  under  charge 
of  Messrs.  Simpson  and  McDonald,  both  clerks  in  the  com- 
pany's service  ;  they  occupied  the  island  simply  the  few 
weeks  of  the  salmon  season,  abandoning  it  as  soon  as  that 
was  over. 

No  English  settler  or  colonist  has  ever  been  on  the  is- 
land, and  no  occupation  or  claim  was  attempted  to  be  set 
up  previous  to  the  year  1853.  In  the  summer  of  that  year 
the  propriety  of  claiming  and  occupying  it  was  discussed 
by  the  chief  factors  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  at  Vic- 
toria, and  having  determined  on  doing  so,  Mr.  McDonald, 
the  same  who  had  been  in  charge  of  the  fishing  parties  tor 
the  two  previous  years,  was  designated  as  the  person  to 
open  a  sheep  farm,  and  thus  make  the  claim  through  the 
company  in  behalf  of  the  English  government.  This  was 
determined  in  the  month  of  July.     Delavs,  however,  arose 

315 


3l6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

till  the  early  part  of  December,  when,  on  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Griffin  from  Fort  Simpson,  it  was  deemed  that  he  was  a 
more  suitable  person,  and  he  was  accordingly  forthwith 
dispatched  to  San  Juan  for  that  purpose. 

On  learning  of  this  invasion  of  American  soil,  J.  M. 
Ebey,  the  collector  of  customs  for  the  Puget's  Sound  dis- 
trict, at  once  notified  Governor  Douglas  that  the  sheep  were 
liable  to  seizure  for  being  brought  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
his  custom-house  without  paying  duty.  Governor  Douglas 
thereupon  claimed  it  as  British  soil,  and  appointed  Mr. 
Griffin  a  stipendiary  magistrate  for  the  island  of  San  Juan, 
as  a  dependency  of  Vancouver's  island,  thus  extending  the 
English  laws  over  the  island. 

The  United  States  collector  having  no  means  of  enforcing 
the  collection  of  the  customs — there  was  at  that  time  no 
revenue  cutter  in  the  district,  or  other  available  force — pro- 
tested against  the  action  of  Governor  Douglas,  notifying 
him  that  eventually  this  unjustifiable  intrusion  would  have 
to  be  accounted  for.  He  also  appointed  a  United  States 
inspector  of  customs  to  remain  on  the  island,  directing  him 
to  keep  an  account  of  all  goods  and  dutiable  effects  that 
might  be  landed  by  the  English.  Shortly  afterwards  a 
complaint  was  sworn  to  against  Mr.  Webber,  the  inspector, 
by  Captain  Sangster,  the  collector  of  Vancouver's  island, 
and  on  that  complaint,  the  purport  of  which  was  the  very 
absurd  one  of  calling  himself  a  custom-house  ofificer,  a  war- 
rant was  issued.  Captain  Sangster,  himself,  acting  as  con- 
stable, placed  his  hands  on  Webber's  shoulder,  and  attempt- 
ed to  arrest  him  in  the  Queen's  name.  Webber  declined  to 
obey  the  arrest,  threatening  to  shoot  the  first  man  who  in- 
terfered with  him  in  the  possession  of  his  rightful  liberty, 
saying,  first,  that  he  had  committed  no  crime ;  and,  second- 
ly, that  he  was  on  American  soil,  and  would  not  recognize 
their  right  to  issue  any  process  against  him.  The  warrant 
of  arrest  is  still  in  Mr.  Webber's  possession.  The  constable 
having  handed  it  to  him,  on  his  request  to  see  it,  he  retained 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  317 

it  as  a  proof,  should  there  be  any  necessity  for  such,  of  the 
strange  and  absurd  course  of  conduct  pursued  by  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company  and  the  Enghsh  colonial  authorities  of 
Vancouver's  island. 

Mr.  Webber  remained  on  San  Juan  about  a  year,  but  was 
forced  at  last  to  leave  on  account  of  the  daily  insecurity  of 
his  life  from  the  northern  Indians,  on  several  occasions  hav- 
ing to  seek  the  shelter  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  House,  at  one 
time  remaining  several  days  within  their  enclosure  without 
daring  to  go  out. 

He  was  succeeded  in  office  by  Oscar  Olney,  who  left 
for  the  same  reason  after  a  few  months,  and  he  in  turn  by 
the  present  inspector,  Paul  K.  Hubbs,  jr.,  all  of  whom  have, 
at  different  times,  been  compelled,  temporarily,  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  protection  of  Mr.  Griffin,  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  agent,  and  which,  in  justice  to  him,  I  must 
say  was  always  freely  accorded. 

This  feeling  of  insecurity,  however,  effectually  prevented 
the  settlement  of  the  island,  which  would  otherwise,  from 
its  position  and  its  agricultural  advantages,  have  been  years 
ago  almost  entirely  taken  up  by  farmers. 

At  the  first  session  of  the  legislative  assembly  of  Wash- 
ington Territory,  in  1854,  the  upper  part  of  Island  county, 
which,  by  its  organization  in  1852  by  the  Oregon  legisla- 
ture, included  within  its  boundaries  the  islands  of  San  Juan, 
Lopez,  Oreas,  Blakely,  Decatur  and  Shaw,  was  organized 
into  the  new  county  of  Whatcom. 

The  assessment  of  San  Juan  was  made  with  the  other 
parts  of  the  county  the  same  year,  but  the  enforcement  of 
the  tax  was  not  made  till  March  i8,  1855,  when  the  sheriff, 
in  pursuance  with  the  requirements  of  the  law  in  such  cases, 
seized  thirty  odd  sheep  on  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's 
farm,  and  sold  them  to  the  highest  bidder,  the  payment  of 
the  taxes  due  the  county  having  been  refused  by  Mr. 
Griffin. 

It  is  for  this  seizure  the  Hudson's  Bay  Compan\-  have 


3l8  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

had  the  assurance  to  present  a  claim  through  the  British 
minister  lo  the  State  Department  for  the  moderate  sum  of 
nearly  $15,000.  As  a  more  full  and  complete  answer  to 
this  extravagant  claim,  to  show  how  out  of  all  proportion 
to  the  damage  incurred  is  the  amount  claimed,  I  annex 
herewith  a  review  of  the  report  of  Governor  Douglas,  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Pioneer  &  Democrat,"  at  Olj'mpia,  Wash- 
ington Territory,  April  30,  1858. 

Whatcom  county  never  relinquished  her  claim,  and  the 
taxes  were  regularly  assessed  each  year,  though  no  attempt 
was  again  made  to  enforce  them,  in  the  strong  hopes  that 
prompt  and  energetic  steps  would  be  at  once  taken  by  the 
government  to  prevent  any  further  necessity  of  having  thus 
rigidly  to  assert  her  rights.  The  county  authorities,  in 
order  to  prevent  any  collision  or  difficulty,  which  they  saw 
would  be  inevitable  should  they  follow  their  original  deter- 
mination, contented  themselves  by  simply  each  year  mak- 
ing the  annual  assessment,  feeling  confident  that  in  the  end 
the  rightful  dues  would  be  paid,  looking  forward  to  a 
speedy  settlement  of  their  undoubted  right  of  sovereignty 
over  the  island. 

The  same  was  also  the  course  of  conduct  pursued  by  the 
custom-house  inspector,  he  merely  taking  an  account  of  the 
vessels  arriving  and  the  goods  landed. 

The  last  assessment  was  made  on  the  20th  of  May,  1859, 
at  which  time  there  was  due  the  county  $935.  There  were 
4,500  sheep,  40  head  of  cattle,  five  yoke  of  oxen,  35  horses, 
and  40  hogs  on  the  island,  the  property  of  the  company, 
with  about  80  acres  fenced  and  under  cultivation,  sowed 
principally  with  oats,  peas,  and  potatoes.  There  were  at- 
tached to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  station,  besides 
Mr.  Griffin,  eighteen  servants,  three  only  of  whom  were 
white,  and  those  three  were  naturalized  American  citizens, 
and  exercised  their  rights  as  such  at  the  territorial  election 
held  on  the  second  Monday  in  July  last,  at  which  time  there 
were  twenty-nine  actual  settlers  on  the  island. 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES,  3I9 

The  request  was  made  by  the  American  settlers  as  early 
as  May  to  General  Harney  to  give  them  a  small  force,  say 
a  detachment  of  twenty  men,  something  that  would  c^ive 
them  a  feeling  of  security,  as  continued  apprehension  was 
equally  as  bad  as  actual  danger;  it  had  prevented  the  set- 
tlement of  San  Juan  and  the  adjoining  isolated  islands  for 
years,  this  being  the  stopping  place  or  point  of  departure 
from  whence  the  northern  marauding  Indians  issued  to 
commit  their  depredations.  Already  several  murders  had 
been  committed  in  the  neighborhood,  some  of  them  quite 
recently,  and  they  claimed  that  protection  which  citizens 
had  a  right  to  demand  of  their  government.  He  was  ur- 
gently asked  to  visit  the  island,  to  view  its  resources  and  its 
advantageous  position.  He  did  so  on  his  inspecting  tour, 
a  few  weeks  later,  of  the  military  posts  on  the  sound,  after 
his  return  from  a  visit  to  Vancouver's  island. 

The  settlers  afterwards  drew  up  the  request  in  writing, 
which  they  had  before  verbally  made,  and  forwarded  for  his 
action  thereon.  At  the  same  time  he  was  also  informed  of 
the  expectation  of  the  settlers,  that  one  of  their  number 
would  be  arrested  by  the  English  authorities. 

In  accordance  with  this  request.  General  Harney  placed 
upon  the  island  Captain  Pickett's  company  of  the  9th  in- 
fantry. Troops  had  previously  been  sent  there  in  small 
detachments  to  inquire  into  outrages  committed.  What 
was  asked  was  permanent  protection,  and  not  an  occasional 
visit  of  an  inadequate  force  at  long  intervening  periods. 
Not  the  most  remote  idea  was  entertained  by  the  settlers 
that  the  thus  affording  them  the  protection  to  which  they 
were  entitled  was  to  be  made  the  excuse  for  the  excitement 
so  very  unnecessarily  created  by  the  indiscreet  action  and 
demonstration  made  by  Governor  Douglas.  They  the  less 
apprehended  it,  because  those  of  their  own  number  who 
had  been  thrown  most  in  contact  with  the  English  authori- 
ties were  convinced  that  the  English  themselves  did  not 
conscientiously  believe  they  had  any  legitimate  right  what- 


320  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

ever  to  the  island.  It  had  simply  been  located  on  by  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  to  give  to  a  shadowy  claim  the 
substance  of  an  occupation,  hoping  that  they  would  be  left 
undisturbed  in  possession  long  enough  to  dignify  the  pre- 
tence into  something  like  a  right — a  mere  stroke  of  colonial 
policy,  perhaps  successful  from  its  very  audacity.  By 
claiming  all  the  islands  to  the  Rosario  straits,  rather  than 
have  any  difficulty — and  we  were  to  be  compelled  to  be- 
lieve, if  possible,  we  were  on  the  verge  of  it — a  compromise 
would  be  effected  by  the  adoption  of  Washington  channel, 
a  narrow  strait  between  the  islands  of  San  Juan  and  Lopez, 
in  some  parts  a  scant  quarter  of  a  mile  across,  and  the  sur- 
render to  them  of  Point  Roberts,  at  the  mouth  of  Fraser 
river,  thus  obtaining  the  most  valuable  of  the  islands — in- 
deed the  only  one  they  cared  about.  These  are  known  to 
have  been  their  hopes  and  expectations  ever  since  they 
took  the  bold  step  of  occupying  San  Juan. 

The  same  day  that  Captain  Pickett  landed,  her  Britannic 
Majesty's  ship  "Satellite"  came  into  the  harbor  of  San 
Juan  and  landed  Major  De  Courcy  as  the  English  stipendi- 
ary magistrate.  At  the  time  the  "  Satellite  "  left  Victoria 
it  was  not  known  that  there  were  any  American  troops  on 
the  island  or  to  be  placed  there.  Captain  Prevost,  the 
commander  of  the  "Satellite,"  stated  that  it  was  not  even 
known  at  Victoria  such  a  movement  was  contemplated. 
He  had  come  over  by  direction  of  the  colonial  governor  to 
install  the  English  magistrate  in  his  position  as  the  civil 
official  of  the  island. 

So  many  false  statements  have  been  published  in  the 
"  London  Times,"  which  are  somewhat  official  in  their  na- 
ture, being  written  by  Mr.  Donald  Fraser,  a  member  of  the 
executive  council  of  Vancouver's  island,  and  which  are 
taken  for  the  true  history  of  the  affair,  instead  of  being,  as 
they  most  generally  are,  exactly  the  reverse,  that  I  deem  it 
proper  here  to  say,  in  contradiction  of  some  of  those  mis- 
representations, that  no  American  magistrate  or  any  other 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  321 

civilian  whatever  came  with  Captain  Pickett.  As  the  magis- 
trate of  Whatcom  county,  on  my  arrival  in  the  steamer 
"  Constitution,"  on  the  29th  July,  I  came  merely  for  a  tem- 
porary visit;  finding  there  was  an  English  official  claiming 
to  be  the  civil  authority  of  the  island,  I  remained  as  such 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States.  I  did  so  in  accordance 
with  my  own  judgment  of  what  was  my  duty  in  the  prem- 
ises, informing  the  English  magistrate  that  whilst  I  could 
not  for  a  moment  acknowledge  he  had  any  right  whatever 
to  exercise  any  magisterial  functions  on  the  island,  and  the 
attempt  to  execute  any  process  he  might  issue  would  be  at 
once  promptly  met,  yet  I  felt  sure  that,  taking  into  con- 
sideration the  disastrous  consequences  that  might  ensue  by 
a  collision  on  the  part  of  the  civil  authority,  he  would  do 
whatever  lay  in  his  power  to  avoid  so  deplorable  a  result. 
By  direction  of  Governor  Douglas,  the  British  naval  force 
were  to  obey  any  command  or  requisition  that  he  might 
make  upon  them  for  assistance. 

Major  De  Courcy  realized  the  responsibility  of  his  posi- 
tion, and  acted  throughout  the  whole  difficulty  with  a  dis- 
cretion and  good  feehng  which  tended  very  much  to  pre- 
serve quiet  and  peace.  That  he  was  appointed  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  seeing  British  laws  enforced  upon  the 
island  is  beyond  doubt.  His  commission  is  dated  July  26, 
1859,  and  he  was  notified  that  he  was  to  be  appointed  nearly 
a  month  previous.     These  are  facts  that  cannot  be  disputed. 

Governor  Douglas's  letter  to  General  Harney  is  not  cor- 
rect in  two  essential  points  :  one  with  regard  to  Mr.  Dallas, 
and  the  other  as  to  the  intended  attempt  to  apprehend  an 
American  citizen. 

Mr.  Dallas,  it  is  true,  did  not  come  over  in  a  man-of-war; 

he  came    over   in   the    Hudson's  Bay  Company's   steamer 

"  Beaver; "  nor  could  he  have  known  till  after  his  arrival,  as 

the  occurrence  had  taken  place  but  a  few  hours  previous, 

anything  with  regard  to  the  difficulty.     His  subsequent  in- 

discret  conduct,  and  the  controlling  influence  he  possesses 
21 


322  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

over  Governor  Douglas,  is  the  whole  cause  of  all  the  trouble 
on  that  score. 

Mr.  Dallas  is  not  a  chief  factor ;  his  powers  are  much 
more  extensive.  He  is  one  of  the  directors  of  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company,  and  has  extraordinary  powers  granted 
him  by  the  company,  as  will  be  seen  by  his  commission. 
So  far  from  not  being  connected  with  the  government,  he 
has  been  ever  since  his  residence  on  Vancouver's  island — 
for  nearly  the  last  two  years — a  member  of  the  executive 
council,  as  is  also  Mr.  Donald  Fraser,  who  was  with  him  at 
the  time  above  alluded  to. 

Immediately  on  his  return  from  San  Juan,  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  magistrate  for  the  island  was  determined  on,  and 
the  agent  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  directed  to 
lodge  a  complaint  against  the  party  referred  to,  not  only  on 
the  ground  of  the  killing  of  the  animal,  but  also  as  a  tres- 
pass upon  lands  belonging  to  the  company,  in  addition  to 
which  he  was  directed  to  proceed  against  an}'  other  of  the 
settlers  that  he  might  deem  interfered  with  his  sheep  runs, 
or  wherever  he  might  think  proper  to  place  his  flocks  or 
other  stock.      TJiis  caiDiot,  zvith  triitli,  be  denied. 

As  that  would  leave  it  at  the  option  of  the  agent  to  claim 
the  whole  island,  or,  to  the  same  effect,  all  the  grazing  por- 
tions, the  result  would  have  been,  if  enforced,  the  removal 
of  all  the  settlers. 

The  only  inference  that  can  be  drawn  is,  had  there  been 
no  probability  of  at  once  an  active  resistance  to  the  execu- 
tion of  process,  the  original  intention  would  have  been  car- 
ried out. 

The  governor  says  further,  in  his  letter,  that  had  there 
been  any  complaint  against  an  American  citizen,  he  should 
have  referred  it  to  American  authorities,  and  that  he  paid 
no  attention  to  a  complaint  which  was  made  by  an  English 
subject  upon  one  occasion,  out  of  respect  to  the  friendly 
government  to  which  the  alleged  offender  belonged. 
Thoroughly  conversant    with    the    occurrences    that   have 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  323 

taken  place  on  San  Juan  from  1853  to  the  present  time,  I 
am,  in  common  with  other  residents  of  the  island,  at  a  loss 
to  know  to  what  or  whom  he  alludes.  That  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  take  notice  of  exceedingly  frivolous  complaints, 
the  one  he  forwards  to  General  Scott  with  regard  to  the  fine 
and  imprisonment  of  a  man  who  was  engaged  in  the  nefari- 
ous traffic  of  liquor  to  Indians,  is  in  itself  an  evidence.  The 
reply  to  his  communication  is  hereto  appended. 

The  island  of  San  Juan  does  not  command,  as  has  been 
asserted,  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Victoria,  nor  the 
passage  northward  to  the  settlements  in  British  Columbia. 

It  is  not  in  any  manner,  nor  could  it  by  any  means  of 
offence  or  defence,  become  essential  in  a  military  point  of 
view  to  the  protection  of  either  of  the  British  colonies. 
The  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Victoria  is  full  eighteen  miles 
from  the  nearest  portion  of  San  Juan,  and  the  Canal  del 
Haro  has  a  width  of  over  seven  miles.  It  is  the  only  one 
of  the  channels  that  is  over  caftnon  shot  across. 

Their  claim  is  based  upon  the  statement  that  in  olden 
times  the  captains  of  their  brigs  and  trading  vessels  more 
frequently  used  the  Rosario  straits ;  that  it  was  more  fre- 
quently used  is  owing  to  the  fact  of  the  Canal  del  Haro, 
which  is  in  reality  but  a  continuation  of  the  Straits  of  Fuca, 
being  a  broad,  deftp  arm  of  the  sea ;  in  case  of  adverse 
winds  or  calms  the  anchorage  was  both  difficult  to  reach, 
and  when  found  afforded  but  poor  holding  ground,  whereas 
Rosario  straits  is  a  much  narrower  channel,  in  some  parts 
not  two  miles  across,  and  afforded  everywhere  secure  an- 
chorage. Yet  on  this  flimsy  pretext  of  the  action  and  cau- 
tion of  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  captains,  who  were  well 
aware  if  they  lost  a  vessel  their  employment  ceased,  is 
based  their  claim  that  the  Rosario  straits  is  the  channel 
designated  as  the  boundary  by  the  treaty  of.  1846,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  in  all  the  discussions  in  the  United 
States  Senate  at  the  time  of  its  ratification  the  Canal  del 
Haro  was  especially  alluded  to  as  the  boundary. 


324  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

From  Victoria  to  Fraser  River,  by  the  way  of  Rosario 
straits,  is  nearly  twenty  miles  further  than  by  the  Canal  del 
Haro.  The  steamer  and  other  American  vessels,  during 
the  Fraser  River  excitement,  went  a  still  nearer  passage 
inside  of  Saturna  island,  called  the  "Active  pass,"  but 
which  the  British  surveying  steamer  "  Plutnper,"  that  came 
out  eighteen  months  after  the  United  States  coast  survey 
steamer  "Active"  had  surveyed  and  named  the  same — 
indeed  went  through  it  with  the  sailing  directions  of  the 
"  Active " — very  coolly  puts  down  on  the  chart  as  the 
"Plumper  pass,"  a  piece  of  aporopriation  that  resembles 
only  their  claim  to  the  islands. 

In  1846  the  vessels  owned  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, independent  of  their  ships  bringing  their  supplies 
direct  from  England  and  returning  with  furs,  were  the 
steamer  "Beaver,"  the  brigs  "Mary  Dare"  and  "  Cadboro," 
and  the  schooner  "Una." 

The  "Beaver"  went  up  north  as  far  as  Sitka,  supplying 
the  northern  posts  and  trading  with  the  Russian  Itidians; 
the  "Mary  Dare"  and  "Una"  traded  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  whilst  the  "Cadboro"  was  more  especially  for  the 
posts  on  Fraser  River  and  Puget's  Sound. 

The  "Beaver"  used  the  Canal  del  Haro,  as  did  also  the 
"  Cadboro,"  when  she  had  a  leading  breeze.  One  of  the 
passages  out  of  the  Canal  del  Haro  into  the  Gulf  of  Geor- 
gia is  named  the  Cadboro  passage.  All  of  the  vessels  had 
been  years  employed  in  the  fur  trade;  the  "Beaver"  since 
1835,  the  first  steamer  ever  on  the  Pacific,  and  the  "Cad- 
boro" as  far  back  as  1829. 

The  island  of  San  Juan  is  nineteen  miles  long,  with  a 
width  of  seven  miles,  containing  about  50,000  acres  of  land. 
The  soil  is  fertile.  There  are  on  it  many  prairies,  and,  as 
the  woods  have  not  that  thick  matted  undergrowth  so  com- 
mon to  the  Oregon  coast,  is  easy  of  access  in  all  directions. 
The  causes  before  assigned  are  the  only  reasons  why  it  has 
not  been  before  entirely  occupied. 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  325 

There  is  but  a  small  band  of  Indians  residing  on  the 
island,  a  part  of  the  Lummi  tribe  of  Bellingham  Bay.  The 
Sanich  and  Cowitchins,  of  Vancouver's  island,  both  large 
tribes,  frequent  it  in  great  numbers  during  the  fishing  sea- 
son in  summer.  The  Sanich  are  a  tribe  whose  winter 
camping  grounds*  adjoin  the  town  of  Victoria. 

As  their  land  is  of  great  value,  and  exceedingly  desirable 
as  a  continuation  of  the  water  front  of  the  town,  the  motion 
was  made  some  months  since  in  the  colonial  legislature,  and 
gravely  discussed,  to  remove  them  from  Victoria  as  seriously 
interfering  with  the  interests  of  the  community,  and  locate 
them  permanently  on  the  island  of  San  Juan.  It  was  intro- 
duced and  urged  mainly  by  the  speaker.  Dr.  Helenchen,  a 
son-in-law  of  the  governor.  Parties  of  the  Bella-Bellas, 
Milbauks-chim-zi-ans,  Hyder,  Stickens,  and  Tongas,  con- 
stantly visit  the  island.  The  three  last  tribes  are  the  most 
dangerous  of  all,  though  none  are  to  be  trusted ;  they  live 
far  to  the  north.  The  Hyders  are  from  Queen  Charlotte 
island  ;  the  Stickens  and  Tongas  from  the  Russian  posses- 
sions. It  is  these  northern  Indians  that  keep  the  whole 
upper  part  of  the  sound  in  a  state  of  continual  dread.  Their 
canoes  are  large,  carrying  generally  from  20  to  30  paddles, 
sometimes  double  that  number,  all  being  well  armed,  each 
canoe  having  an  arm-chest,  in  which  there  is  stowed  a  gun 
for  each  man,  in  addition  to  the  one  beside  him  for  imme- 
diate use.  They  move  rapidly  from  point  to  point,  await  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  commit  a  depredation,  and  then 
push  at  once  for  their  homes.  What  conduces  in  some 
manner  to  the  protection  of  the  settlers  is,  that  the  tribes 
of  the  sound  are  our  outposts  of  alarm ;  between  them  there 
is  always  an  open  war,  though,  as  the  northern  Indians  are 
bold  and  remarkably  athletic  men,  having  a  singular  resem- 
blance to  the  Tartar  race  in  complexion  and  appearance, 
they  never  attack  them  unless  in  much  greater  numbers, 
and  only  then  when  at  a  great  disadvantage. 

As  they  never  have  been  punished  for  their  depredations. 


326  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

each  year  they  increase  in  boldness  and  numbers.  The 
Stickens  are  the  Indians  who  committed  the  murders  in 
BelHngham  Bay  in  1854,  and  a  branch  of  the  tribe  called 
the  Ka-acks,  the  murder  of  Colonel  Ebey,  in  the  summer 
of  1856. 

The  heads  of  the  persons  murdered  are  always  carried 
off  as  trophies,  around  which,  on  their  arrival  amongst  their 
tribes,  are  performed  ceremonies  similiar  to  the  scalp  dance 
of  the  plains. 

From  the  admirable  manner  in  which  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  have  managed  the  Indians — treating  them  with 
kindness,  and  at  the  same  time  with  great  firmness;  just  so 
sure  as  they  committed  an  outrage  on  persons  or  property, 
just  so  sure  were  they  certain  to  be  promptly  punished, 
never  allowing  that  terrible  delay  of  which  our  frontier  set- 
tlers have  so  bitterly  experienced  its  evils,  to  rob  the  ex- 
ample of  its  proper  effect,  but  doing  whatever  they  deemed 
justice  required  at  once  and  thoroughly,  thus  insuring  to 
their  agents  and  employes,  even  in  the  most  distant  and 
isolated  regions,  entire  security — one  of  their  number  could 
go  anywhere  through  the  most  warlike  of  the  tribes  or 
remain  in  their  neighborhood  unmolested,  whilst  an  Ameri- 
can dared  not  trust  himself  in  their  vicinity,  except  by  de- 
ceiving them  as  to  his  nationality.  The  Hudson's  Bay 
Company's  servants  could  remain  in  safety  on  San  Juan; 
the  Americans  could  not.  The  question  resolved  itself 
into  whether  the  island  was  to  be  abandoned  or  the  settlers 
protected. 

We  have  refrained  in  the  former  chapter  from  giving  an 
account  of  the  difficulties  growing  out  of  the  conflicting 
claims  of  the  United  States  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany to  the  little  but  important  Island  of  San  Juan.  Our 
cousins  of  our  own  blood,  from  whom  we  are  descended,  are 
an  aggressive  and  land-loving  people.  The  English  have 
managed  to  acquire  territory  all  over  the  world.  The  sun 
never  sets  on   the   dominions  of  Victoria,  by  the  grace  of 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  32/ 

God  Queen  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland  and  France,  and 
Empress  of  the  Indies.  The  pillars  of  Hercules  are  in  her 
possession.  She  holds  the  Island  of  Malta,  owns  the 
isthmus  of  Suez,  is  now  demonstrating  for  the  Bosphorus, 
and  her  fleets  are  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora. 

The  complications  which  might  have  resulted  in  a  war 
between  England  and  America  came  to  a  head  while  Gen- 
eral Harney  was  in  command  of  the  Department  in 
Oregon.  His  promptness  in  meeting  the  issue  resulted 
most  happily.  In  the  last  chapter  we  did  not  allude  to  the 
affair  of  the  Island  of  San  Juan  because  we  deemed  it 
worthy  of  a  special  chapter  to  itself,  and  besides,  it  would 
have  distracted  the  mind  of  the  reader  from  the  important 
summary  we  were  endeavoring  to  make  of  General  Har- 
ney's administration  in  command  of  the  department  of 
Oregon. 

That  sagacious  statesman,  William  L.  Marcy,  was  Secre- 
tary of  State,  under  Mr.  Pierce.  He  had  been  Secretary  of 
War  under  Mr.  Polk,  and  had  as  such  rendered  great  ser- 
vice to  the  nation,  had  especially  earned  the  gratitude  of 
the  army  in  the  matter  of  the  protection  of  junior  officers 
against  the  capricious  tyranny  of  their  superiors.  We  have  al- 
ready given  an  account  of  the  vindication  of  General  Harney 
when  Colonel  of  2nd  Dragoons,  by  Secretary  Marcy,  against 
General  Scott,  who  sought  to  depose  him  of  his  command 
and  place  Major  Sumner  in  charge  of  the  regiment.  As 
early  as  1855,  Mr.  Marcy  saw  the  necessity  of  maintaining 
America's  rights  on  the  Pacific,  and  at  the  same  time  pre- 
serving peace  with  our  kinspeople  across  the  Atlantic.  He 
accordingly  instructed  Governor  Stephens,  in  that  terse, 
perspicuous  and  manly  English  for  which  his  state  papers 
are  so  remarkable,  as  follows : 

Department  of  State,        \ 
Washington,  July  14,  1855.  j 

He  [the  President]  has  instructed  me  to  say  to  you  that 


328  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  officers  of  the  territory  should  abstain  from  all  acts  on 
the  disputed  grounds  which  are  calculated  to  provoke  any 
conflicts,  so  far  as  it  can  be  done  without  implying  the  con- 
cession to  the  authority  of  Great  Britain  of  an  exclusive 
right  over  the  premises. 

The  title  ought  to  be  settled  before  either  party  should 
exclude  the  other  by  force,  or  exercise  complete  and  exclu- 
sive sovereign  rights  within  the  fairly  disputed  limits.  Ap- 
plication will  be  made  to  the  British  government  to  inter- 
pose with  the  local  authorities  on  the  northern  borders  of 
our  territory  to  abstain  from  like  acts  of  exclusive  owner- 
ship, with  the  explicit  understanding  that  any  forbearance 
on  either  side  to  assert  the  rights,  respectively,  shall  not  be 
construed  into  any  concession  to  the  adverse  party. 

By  a  conciliatory  and  moderate  course  on  both  sides,  it 
is  sincerely  hoped,  that  all  difficulties  will  be  avoided  until 
an  adjustment  of  the  boundary  line  can  be  made  in  a  man- 
ner mutually  satisfactory.  The  government  of  the  United 
States  will  do  what  it  can  to  have  the  line  established  at  an 
early  period. 

W.  L.  MARCY. 

On  the  17th  of  July,  1855,  he  addressed  a  note  to 
Mr.  Crampton  of  the  British  legation,  with  the  suggestion 
that  pending  negotiations  and  the  settlement  of  conflicting 
claims  in  Oregon,  means  should  be  found  to  prevent  a  con- 
flict between  the  citizens  of  the  two  governments.  The 
wise  forbearance  which  resulted  from  Mr.  Marcy's  timely 
note  to  Mr.  Crampton  prevented  any  open  collision  between 
the  servants  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and  the  citizens 
of  Oregon,  at  the  same  time  that  each  government  had  not, 
by  yielding  to  the  forms  of  law  and  abstaining  from  actual 
hostilities,  conceded  any  question  or  matter  of  right.  As 
has  been  related,  the  sheriff  of  Whitcom  County,  Oregon, 
in  collecting  his  taxes  on  San  Juan  island,  had  made  a  levy 
on  the  sheep  belonging  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  for 
taxes,  the  American  settlers  in  May,  1859,  requested  Gen- 
eral Harney  to  give  them  a  small  force  to  give  them  a  feel- 
ing of  security.     The  want  of  a  competent  force  had  pre- 


SAX  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  329 

vented  a  settlement  of  Americans  on  the  island  and  the 
adjoining  islands  for  years.  General  Harney  issued  orders 
to  Lieut.  Colonel  S.  Casey,  as  follows: 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon,  \ 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  July  i8,  1859.    / 

Sir  :  By  Special  Orders  No.  72,  herewith  inclosed,  you 
will  perceive  the  general  commanding  has  withdrawn  the 
garrison  from  Belhngham  and  Townsend,  and  has  placed 
the  steamer  "  Massachusetts  "  under  your  orders  for  the  bet- 
ter protection  and  supervision  of  the  waters  of  Puget's 
Sound. 

To  carry  out  these  instructions  with  more  effect,  the  gen- 
eral commanding  desires  me  to  communicate  to  you  the 
following  directions:  The  steamer  "  Massachusetts  "  will 
proceed  without  delay  to  Bellingham,  to  be  used  in  estab- 
lishing company  "  D,"  9th  infantry,  on  San  Juan  island; 
after  which  she  will  convey  company  "  I  "  of  the  4th  in- 
fantry to  Steilacoom,  when  the  company  you  assign  for  ser- 
vice on  the  steamer  will  be  embarked  under  your  supervis- 
ion. Article  37,  general  regulations  :  Troops  on  board  of 
transports,  will,  as  far  as  practicable,  govern  in  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  company  on  board.  As  no  surgeon  is  available 
for  the  ship,  medical  attendance  will  be  obtained  at  Fort 
Steilacoom  or  San  Juan  island,  when  required,  medical  sup- 
plies, however,  with  directions  for  use,  will  be  furnished  by 
your  medical  officer  for  such  probable  cases  of  danger  as 
will  require  immediate  attention. 

After  the  ship  has  received  the  necessary  stores  and  sup- 
plies, she  will  be  instructed  to  cruise  in  the  sound  among 
the  islands  frequented  by  the  northern  Indians,  who  will  be 
warned  not  to  come  into  any  of  the  waters  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  United  States,  which  embraces  all  the  islands 
and  currents  to  the  east  of  the  Straits  of  Haro. 

Any  opposition  by  these  Indians  will  be  speedily  checked, 
and  the  requirements  of  these  instructions  will  be  maintain- 
ed by  force,  if  necessary.  The  ordinary  rendezvous  of  the 
steamer  Massachusetts,  for  wood  and  water,  will  be  San 
Juan  island,  and  should  the  commander  of  that  island  de- 
sire the  assistance  of  any  force  from  the  ship  for  purposes 
connected  with  the  defense  of  the  island,  the  officer  in  com- 


330  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

mand  of  the  ship  will  be  instructed  to  furnish  the  force  and 
co-operate  with  the  troops  in  all  measures  requiring  its 
safety  and  protection.  At  the  end  of  every  two  months 
the  ship  will  visit  Fort  Steilacoom  to  obtain  supplies,  and 
for  the  muster  and  inspection  required  by  the  regulations. 
The  command  on  the  steamer  Massachusetts  will  be  borne 
on  the  post  return  of  Fort  Steilacoom,  as  a  component 
part  of  its  garrison. 

In  the  ordinary  cruising  of  the  sound,  the  ship  will  be 
propelled  by  sail  only,  but  at  least  four  days'  fuel  for  steam 
will  be  kept  constantly  on  board,  to  be  used  whenever  ne- 
cessity requires  celerity  of  motion.  The  ship  will  visit  the 
light-houses  on  the  sound  in  her  cruises,  and  furnish  them 
any  protection  that  may  be  needed.  As  the  ship  is  mount- 
ed with  eight  thirt)'-two  pounders,  and  the  proper  ammu- 
nition has  been  provided,  the  crew  will  be  instructed,  under 
the  direction  of  the  master  of  the  vessel  in  their  use,  to 
obtain  the  most  efficient  action  from  all  parties  in  cases  re- 
quiring it.  Whenever  circumstances  occur  requiring  a  de- 
viation from  the  tenor  of  these  instructions,  you  are  au- 
thorized to  use  your  own  discretion  and  judgment  in  the 
matter,  reporting  the  occurrence  to  this  office.  The  gen- 
eral commanding  is  pleased  to  communicate  his  confidence 
in  the  zeal,  energy,  and  intelligence  you  exercise  in  the 
discharge  of  your  duties  to  the  service,  and  he  rests  assured 
the  details  transmitted  in  this  communication  will  be  ren- 
dered with  satisfaction  and  advantage  to  such  worthy 
qualities. 

I  am,  colonel,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  PLEASONTON, 
Captain  2d  Dragoo7is,  A.  Asst.  AdJ't.  General. 

First  Lieutenant  S.  Casey, 

gth  Infantry  co))inianding  Fort  Steilacoom,  Pugef  s  Sound. 

On  the  nth  of  July  Captain  George  E.  Pickett  was  or- 
dered to  establish  himself  with  his  company  at  Bellevue, 
on  the  Island  of  San  Juan.  His  instructions  were  that  he 
was  to  protect  the  inhabitants  from  hostile  incursions  of  the 
Indians  from  British  America  and  the  Russian  possessions. 
He  was  ordered  not  to  allow  any  force  of  the  Indians  in 
Puget   Sound   or  to   visit   San   Juan,    or  the    neighboring 


SAN    JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  331 

islands  over  which  the  United  States  had  any  jurisdiction. 
He  was  instructed  to  warn  them  in  a  peaceable  but  firm 
manner  to  return  to  their  own  country,  and  if  they  showed 
any  hostile  opposition,  to  use  the  most  decisive  measures 
to  enforce  his  demands ;  and  the  troops  on  the  steamer 
Massachusetts,  cruising  in  the  sound,  were  instructed  to  sup- 
port Captain  Pickett  with  their  whole  force. 
Captain  Pickett's  second  instruction : 

Second.  Another  serious  and  important  duty  will  devolve 
upon  you  in  the  occupation  of  San  Juan  island,  arising 
from  the  conflicting  interests  of  the  American  citizens  and 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  establishment  at  that  point. 
This  duty  is  to  afford  adequate  protection  to  the  American 
citizens  in  their  rights  as  such,  and  to  resist  all  attempts  at 
interference  by  the  British  authorities  residing  on  Vancou- 
ver's Island,  by  intimidation  or  force,  in  the  controversies 
of  the  above-mentioned  parties. 

This  protection  has  been  called  for  in  consequence  of  the 
chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  Mr.  Dallas, 
having  recently  visited  San  Juan  island  with  a  British  sloop- 
of-war,  and  threatened  to  take  an  American  citizen  by  force 
to  Victoria  for  trial  by  British  laws.  It  is  hoped  a  second 
attempt  of  this  kind  will  not  be  made,  but  to  insure  the 
safety  of  our  citizens  the  general  commanding  directs  you 
to  meet  the  authorities  from  Victoria  at  once,  on  a  second 
arrival,  and  inform  them  they  cannot  be  permitted  to  inter- 
fere with  our  citizens  in  any  way.  Any  grievances  they 
may  allege  as  requiring  redress  can  only  be  examined  un- 
der our  own  laws,  to  which  they  must  submit  their  claims 
in  proper  form. 

The  promptness  of  General  Harney  in  taking  possession 
of  San  Juan,  rather  startled  the  authorities  at  Washington, 
and  on  the  receipt  of  the  General's  dispatches  the  follow- 
ing letter  from  the  acting  Secretary  of  War  was  sent  to 
him  : 

War  Department,  September  3,  1859. 

Sir  :  Your  dispatch  of  the  19th  July  last,  addressed  to 
the  general-in-chief,  has  been  forwarded  to  this  department 
and  laid  before  the  President  for  his  consideration. 


332  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

The  President  was  not  prepared  to  learn  that  you  had 
ordered  military  possession  to  be  taken  of  the  island  of  San 
Juan  or  Bellevue.  Although  he  believes  the  Straits  of 
Haro  to  be  the  true  boundary  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  under  the  treaty  of  June  15,  1846,  and 
that,  consequently,  this  island  belongs  to  us,  yet  he  had  not 
anticipated  that  so  decided  a  step  would  have  been  resorted 
to  without  instructions.  In  cases  respecting  territor}-  in 
dispute  between  friendly  nations  it  is  usual  to  suffer  the 
status  of  the  parties  to  remain  until  the  dispute  is  termin- 
ated one  way  or  the  other,  and  this  more  especially  whilst 
the  question  is  pending  for  decision  before  a  joint  commis- 
sion of  the  two  governments.  If  you  had  good  reason  to 
believe  that  the  colonial  authorities  of  Great  Britain  were 
about  to  disturb  the  status  by  taking  possession  of  the 
island  and  assuming  jurisdiction  over  it,  you  were  in  the 
right  to  anticipate  their  action. 

*****  The  President  will  not,  for 
the  present,  form  any  decided  opinion  upon  your  course  on 
the  statement  of  facts  presented  in  your  dispatch.  He  will 
await  further  details,  which  he  expects  to  receive  from  }'ou 
by  the  next  steamer.  He  is  especially  anxious  to  ascertain 
whether,  before  you  proceeded  to  act,  you  had  communi- 
cated with  Commissioner  Campbell,  who  could  not  then 
have  been  distant  from  you,  and  who  was  intrusted  by  this 
government,  in  conjunction  with  the  British  Commissioner, 
to  decide  this  very  boundary  question. 

In  the  meantime  care  ought  to  be  taken  to  apprise  the 
British  authorities  that  possession  has  thus  been  taken 
solely  with  the  view  of  protecting  the  rights  of  our  citizens 
on  the  island,  and  preventing  the  incursions  of  the  northern 
Indians  into  our  territory,  and  not  with  any  view  of  pre- 
judging the  question  in  dispute  or  retaining  the  island 
should  the  question  be  finally  decided  against  the  United 
States. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  R.  DRINKARD, 

Acting  Secretary  of  ]Var. 

Brigadier-General  Wm.  S.  Harney, 

Commanding  Depart))ient  of  Oregon,  Fort  Vancouver. 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES,  333 

General  Harney  had,  in  the  meantime,  forwarded  a  copy 
of  the  petition  of  the  American  citizens  of  San  Juan,  asking 
protection,  upon  which  he  had  based  his  action  in  posting 
Captain  Pickett's  force  on  the  island. 

San  Juan  Island,  July  ii,  1859. 
To  General  Harney,  Commander-in-  Chief 

of  the  Pacific  divisio7i  of  the  United  States  attny: 

The  undersigned,  American  citizens  on  the  island  of  San 
Juan,  would  respectfully  represent :  That  in  the  month  of 
April,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight,  the  house  of  the  United  States  inspector  of  customs 
for  this  island  was  attacked  and  fired  into  in  the  night  by  a 
party  of  Indians  living  on  this  island,  and  known  as  the 
Clallams,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  timely  aid  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  inspector  would  have  fallen 
a  victim  to  their  savage  designs.  In  the  month  of  July  fol- 
lowing we  found  on  the  beach,  close  to  the  above-men- 
tioned Indian  camp,  the  bodies  of  two  white  men,  appar- 
ently Americans,  who  had,  when  found,  cotton  cords  about 
their  necks  which  had  been  used  to  conceal  them  under 
water.  Last  fall  another  daring  murder  was  committed  in 
the  middle  of  the  day,  and  in  the  plain  sight  of  us  all  here, 
without  the  slightest  chance  of  our  rendering  them  assis- 
tance. Only  ten  days  ago  another  body  was  found  on  our 
shore  which  had  been  the  victim  of  foul  play.  Inclusive 
with  the  above  dangers  that  we  are  exposed  to  from  our 
neighboring  Indians,  we  are  continually  in  fear  of  a  descent 
upon  us  by  the  bands  of  marauding  northern  Indians,  who 
infest  these  waters  in  large  numbers,  and  are  greatly  re- 
tarding the  progress  of  the  settlement  of  this  island. 

According  to  the  treaty  concluded  June  15,  1846,  be- 
tween the  Ll^nited  States  and  Great  Britain,  (the  provisions 
of  which  are  plain,  obvious,  and  pointed  to  us  all  here,)  this 
and  all  the  islands  east  of  the  Canal  del  Haro  belong  to  us; 
we  therefore  claim  American  protection  in  our  present  ex- 
posed and  defenseless  position. 

With  a  view  of  these  facts,  and  for  the  essential  advan- 
tage of  having  this  and  the  surrounding  islands  immediately 
settled,  we  most  earnestly  pray  that  you  will  have  stationed 
on  this  island  a  sufficient  military  force  to  protect   us   from 


334  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  above-mentioned  dangers  until  we  become  sufficiently 
strong  to  protect  ourselves. 

J.  M.  Haggarat.  Noil  Ent. 

Samuel  McCauley,  Michael  Farris. 

J.  E.  Higgins.  George  Perkins. 

Chas  H.  Hubbs-  Alex.  McDonald. 

L.  A.  Cutlar.  Peter  Johnson. 

William  Butler.         •  Angus  jMcDonald. 

J.  D.  Warren.  William  Smith, 

H.  Wharton,  jr.  Charles  McCoy. 

John  Witty.  D.  W.  Oakes. 

B.  S.  Andrews.  Paul  K.  Hubbs,  jr. 

John  Hunter  McKay.  Paul  K.  Hubbs. 

On  the  7th  of  August,  General  Harney's  dispatches  to 
the   War  Department  give  a  full   account  of  the  situation. 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon, 

Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  August  7,  /c^jp. 

Colonel  :  I  have  the  honor  to  enclose,  for  the  informa- 
tion of  the  War  Department,  a  copy  of  a  proclamation  of 
Governor  Douglas  of  her  Britannic  Majesty's  island  of  Van- 
couver, also  a  copy  of  my  reply  to  the  same,  with  a  copy 
of  a  letter  I  have  addressed  to  the  senior  officer  of  our 
navy  on  this  coast,  requesting  him  to  send  a  proper  force 
to  observe  the  three  British  vessels-of-war,  which  are  used 
to  threaten,  with  attempts  to  intimidate,  our  people  on  the 
sound. 

I  have  also  the  honor  to  enclose  a  correspondence  be- 
tween Captain  George  Pickett,  9th  infantry,  commanding 
on  San  Juan  island,  and  Captain  Homby,  the  senior  officer 
commanding  her  Majesty's  ships  "Tribune,"  "Plumper," 
and  "  Satellite." 

The  threatening  attitude  the  British  authorities  have  seen 
proper  to  assume,  has  caused  me  to  order  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Casy  to  reinforce  Captain  Pickett  with  his  three  com- 
panies from  Fort  Steilacoom,  which  post  will  be  occupied 
by  four  companies  of  the  3d  artillery  from  Fort  Vancouver 
until  further  orders. 

In  my  report  of  July  19,  1859,  to  the  kead-quarters  of 
the  army,  I  stated  I    had   ordered  the   company  from  Fort 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  335 

Bellingham  to  San  Juan  island  to  protect  the  American 
citizens  residing  on  that  island  from  the  insults  and  indig- 
nities which  the  British  authorities  of  Vancouver's  ir.lnnd 
did  not  hesitate  to  offer  them  on  every  occasion.  Oa  my 
visit  to'  San  Juan  island,  mentioned  in  that  report,  the 
United  States  inspector  of  customs  on  the  island,  Mr. 
Hubbs,  made  an  official  complaint  in  behalf  of  the  Ameri- 
can citizens  of  the  outrages  perpetrated  upon  them  by  the 
British  authorities  of  Vancouver's  island,  who  are  con- 
nected with  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  establishment,  and 
who  have  a  sheep  farm  on  the  island.  This  company  pre- 
tend to  own  the  whole  island,  which  is  somo^  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  long  and  five  or  six  broad — while  their  im- 
provements on  the  island  are  a  few  old  houses  and  some 
small  fields  under  inclosure. 

A  week  or  ten  days  before  my  arrival  on  that  island  one 
of  the  Americans  shot  a  pig  belonging  to  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  after  having  been  greatly  provoked  by  the 
person  in  charge,  to  whom  he  had  applied  to  have  the  pig 
secured,  as  it  damaged  his  fields.  This  request  was  treated 
with  contempt,  and  the  pig  was  shot,  the  American  offering 
twice  the  value  for  the  animal,  which  was  refused.  The 
next  day  the  British  ship-of-war  "  Satellite,"  with  Mr. 
Dallas  on  board,  who  is  the  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  and  a  son-in-law  of  Governor  Douglas, 
visited  the  island  and  threatened  to  take  the  American  to 
Victoria,  by  force,  for  trial.  The  American  resisted,  seized 
his  rifle,  and  in  return  told  Mr.  Dallas  he  might  take  him, 
but  he  would  kill  him  first.  I  was  also  informed  that  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  had  threatened  at  different  times 
to  send  the  northern  Indians  down  upon  them  and  drive 
them  from  the  island.  This  statement  has  since  been  con- 
firmed to  me  by  some  of  the  most  reliable  citizens  of  the 
Sound.  I  felt  it  my  duty  therefore  to  give  these  citizens 
the  protection  they  sought  with  such  just  and  pressing 
claims. 

Governor  Douglas  is  the  father-in-law  of  Mr.  Dallas,  and, 
having  the  local  rank  of  vice-admiral,  he  commands  the 
British  navy  in  the  Sound.  This  accounts  in  some  measure 
for  the  use  of  the  British  ships-of-war  in  the  supervision  of 
the  interests  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.     To  attempt 


336  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

to  take,  by  armed  force,  an  American  citizen  from  our  soil, 
to  be  tried  by  British  laws,  is  an  insult  to  our  flag  and  an 
outrage  upon  the  rights  of  our  people,  that  has  roused  them 
to  a  high  state  of  indignation.  I  therefore  most  respect- 
fully request  the  President  to  consider  the  necessities  for  an 
increased  naval  force  on  this  station,  to  give  confidence  to 
the  people  that  their  rights  will  be  respected. 

It  would  be  w  ell  for  the  British  government  to  know  the 
American  people  of  this  coast  will  never  sanction  any 
claim  they  may  assert  to  any  other  island  in  Puget's  Sound 
than  that  of  Vancouver,  south  of  the  49th  parallel,  and 
east  of  th^  Canal  del  Haro  ;  any  attempt  at  possession  by 
them  will  be  followed  by  a  collision. 

I  desire  to  assure  the  department  that  while  there  is  no 
one  more  desirous  than  myself  for  an  amicable  settlement 
of  the  difficulties  raised  by  the  British  authorities  of  Van- 
couver's Island  at  this  time,  I  shall  use  all  the  means  at  my 
command  to  maintain  the  position  I  have  assumed  in 
regard  to  San  Juan  island ;  being  fully  convinced  that 
whatever  respect  and  consideration  might  have  been  yielded 
to  the  statements  of  a  doubtful  claim  advanced  in  due  form, 
have  been  forfeited  by  the  overbearing,  insulting,  and 
aggressive  conduct  her  Majesty's  executive  officers  have 
displayed  not  only  towards  our  citizens  but  to  the  officer 
commanding  our  troops  at  San  Juan. 

I  am,  colonel,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General  Commanding, 

Colonel  S.  Cooper, 

Adjutant  General,  Washington  City,  D.  C. 

About  the  same  time  dispatches  from  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Casey,  9th  infantry,  informed  General  Harney  of  the  men- 
acing attitude  of  the  English  and  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
with  the  suggestion  that  "the  authorities  on  the  other  side 
are  trying  to  bluff"  a  little."  But  on  the  30th  of  July  Cap- 
tain Pickett  had  demanded  of  Colonel  Casey  the  active 
co-operation  of  the  forces  at  Fort  Steilacoom  and  the  aid 
of  the  steamer  Massachusetts.  His  dispatches  best  explain 
the  situation : 


,san  juan  difficulties.  337 

Military  Camp, 
San  Juan  Island,  W.  T.,  July  30,  1859. 

My  Dear  Colonel  :  I  have  the  honor  to  inclose  you 
some  notes  which  passed  this  morning  between  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  authorities  and  myself.  From  the  threatening 
attitude  of  affairs  at  present,  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  request 
that  the  Massachusetts  may  be  sent  at  once  to  this  point. 
I  do  not  know  that  any  actual  collision  will  take  place,  but 
it  is  not  comfortable  to  be  lying  within  range  of  a  couple 
of  war  steamers.  The  "  Tribune, "  a  30-gun  frigate,  is 
lying  broadside  to  our  camp,  and  from  present  indications 
everything  leads  me  to  suppose  that  they  will  attempt  to 
prevent  my  carrying  out  my  instructions. 

If  you  have  any  boats  to  spare  I  should  be  happy  to  get 
one  at  least.  The  only  whale  boat  we  Lad  was,  most 
unfortunately,  staved  on  the  day  of  our  departure. 

We  will  be  very  much  in  want  of  some  tools  and  camp 
equipage.  I  have  not  the  time,  colonel,  to  make  out  the 
proper  requisition,  but  if  your  quartermaster  can  send  us 
some  of  these  articles  it  will  be  of  great  service. 

I  am,  sir,  in  haste,  very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

G.  E.  PICKETT, 

Captain  gth  Infantry, 

Lieutenant  Colonel  S.  Casey, 

gth  Infantry,  Couimanding  Fort  Steilacoom,  W.  T. 

P.  S. — The  Shubrick  has  rendered  us  every  assistance  in 
her  power,  and  I  am  much  indebted  for  the  kindness  of 
officers. 

Bellevue  Farm,  San  Juan,  July  30,  1859, 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  the  island  of 
San  Juan,  on  which  your  camp  is  pitched,  is  the  property 
and  in  the  occupation  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  and 
to  request  that  you  and  the  whole  of  the  party  who  have 
landed  from  the  American  vessels  will  immediately  cease 
to  occupy  the  same.  Should  you  be  unwilling  to  comply 
with  my  request,  I  feel  bound  to  apply  to  the  civil  authori- 
ties.    Awaiting  your  reply, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

CHAS.  JNO.  GRIFFIN, 
Agent  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

Captain  Pickett,  &;c.,  &c.,  &c. 
22 


338  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY, 


Military  Camp, 
San  Juan,  W.  T.,  July  30,  1859. 
Sir:  Your  communication  of  this  instant  has  been  re- 
ceived. Ihave  to  state  in  reply  that  I  do  not  acknowledge 
the  right  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  to  dictate  my 
course  of  action.  I  am  here  by  virtue  of  an  order  from  my 
government,  and  shall  remain  till  recalled  by  the  same 
authority. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  E.  PICKETT, 
Captain  gth  U.  S.  Infantry,  Conimandi7ig. 
Mr,  Charles  J.  Griffin, 

Agent  Hudso7i  s  Bay  Company,  San  Juan,  IV.  T, 

Military  Post, 
San  Juan,  W,  T.,  August  3,  10  p.  m. 

Captain  :  I  have  the  honor  to  report  the  following  cir- 
cumstances :  The  British  ships,  the  "  Tribune, "  the 
"Plumper,"  and  the  "Satellite"  are  lying  here  in  a  men- 
acing attitude.  I  have  been  zvarned  off  by  the  Hudson's 
Bay  agent ;  then  a  summons  was  sent  me  to  appear  before 
a  Mr.  De  Courcy,  an  official  of  her  Britannic  Majesty. 
To-day  I  received  the  inclosed  communications,  and  I 
also  inclose  my  answer  to  same. 

I  had  to  deal  with  three  captains,  and  I  thought  it  better 
to  take  the  brunt  of  it.  They  have  a  force  so  much  supe- 
rior to  mine  that  it  will  be  merely  a  mouthful  for  them  ; 
still  I  have  informed  them  that  I  am  here  by  order  of  my 
commanding  general,  and  will  maintain  my  position  if 
possible. 

They  wish  to  have  a  conjoint  occupation  of  the  island; 
I  decline  anything  of  that  kind.  They  can,  if  they 
choose,  land  at  almost  any  point  on  the  island,  and  I  can- 
not prevent  them.  I  have  used  the  utmost  courtesy  and 
delicacy  in  my  intercourse ;  and  if  it  is  possible,  please 
inform  me  at  such  an  early  hour  as  to  prevent  a  collision. 
The  utmost  I  could  expect  to-day  was  to  suspend  any  pro- 
ceeding till  they  have  time  to  digest  a  pill  which  I  gave 
them.  They  wish  to  throw  the  onus  on  me,  because  I 
refused  to  allow  them  to  land  an  equal  force,  and  each   of 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  339 

US  to  have   military  occupation,  thereby  wiping  out    both 
civil  authorities. 

I  say  I  cannot  do  so  till  I  hear  from  the  general. 

I  have  endeavored  to  impress  them  with  the  idea  that  my 
authority  comes  directly  through  you  from  Washington. 

The  "  Pleiades  "  left  this  morning  for  San  Francisco  with 
Colonel  Hawkins. 

The  excitement  in  Victoria  and  here  is  tremendous.  I 
suppose  some  five  hundred  people  have  visited  us.  I  have 
had  to  use  a  great  deal  of  vi\Y  peace-making  disposition  in 
order  to  restrain  some  of  the  sovereigns. 

Please  excuse  this  hasty,  and  I  am  almost  afraid  unintel- 
ligible letter,  but  the  steamer  is  waiting,  and  I  have  been 
writing  under  the  most  unfavorable  circumstances.  I  must 
add  that  they  seem  to  doubt  the  authority  of  the  general 
commanding,  and  do  not  wish  to  acknowledge  his  right  to 
this  island,  which  they  say  is  in  dispute,  unless  the  United 
States  government  have  decided  the  question  with  Great 
Britain.  I  have  so  far  staved  them  off,  by  saying  that  the 
two  governments  have  without  doubt  settled  this  affair;  but 
this  state  of  affairs  cannot  last,  therefore  I  most  respect- 
fully ask  that  an  express  be  sent  me  immediately  on  my 
future  guidance.  I  do  not  think  there  are  any  moments  to 
waste.  In  order  to  maintain  our  dignity  we  must  occupy 
in  force,  or  allow  them  to  land  an  equal  force,  which  they 
can  do  now,  and  possibly  will  do  in  spite  of  my  diplomacy. 

I  have  the  honor  to  inclose  all  the  correspondence  which 
has  taken  place.  Hoping  that  my  course  of  action  will 
meet  with  the  approval  of  the  general  commanding,  and 
that  I  may  hear  from  him  in  regard  to  my  future  course  at 
once. 

I  remain,  captain,  your  obedient  servant, 

G.  E.  PICKETT, 
Captain  gth  Infantry,  Commaiiding  Post. 

Captain  A.  Pleasonton, 

Mounted  Dragoons,  Adjutant  General, 

Department  of  Oregon,  Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T. 

On  the  3d  of  August,  Captain  Hornby,  then  in  command 
of  his  Majesty's  ship  "  Tribune,"  addressed  a  note  to  Captain 
Pickett,  asking  him  to   meet  him   on  board  the  ship.     To 


340  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

this  Captain  Pickett  replied,  by  asking  the  British  officer 
to  meet  him  in  his  camp,  which  invitation  was  duly  accepted, 
and  Captain  Hornby  made  a  formal  written  communication 
as  follows : 

Her  Majesty's  Ship  "Tribune," 

San  Juan  Island,  August  3,  1859. 

Sir:  In  accordance  with  your  request  for  a  written  com- 
munication, I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  the  substance  of 
the  declarations  and  propositions  made  by  me  to  you  to- 
day. 

Having  drawn  your  attention  to  the  extract  of  a  dispatch 
from  Mr.  Marcy,  Secretary  of  State,  to  his  excellency 
Governor  Stevens,  dated  July  14,  1855,  prescribing  the 
conduct  that  should  be  pursued  by  the  officers  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  in  respect  of  the  disputed  grounds,  I  asked  if 
that  was  the  tenor  of  your  present  instructions,  or  if  the 
relations  of  the  two  States  had  been  placed  on  other  than 
a  friendly  footing  by  any  of  a  more  recent  date. 

To  this  you  replied  by  referring  to  the  date  of  the  dis- 
patch. 

I  then  asked  you,  in  the  name  of  Governor  Douglas,  the 
terms  on  which  you  had  occupied  the  island  of  San  Juan ; 
to  which  you  replied  that  you  did  so  by  order  of  the  "gen- 
eral commanding,"  to  protect  it  as  a  part  of  the  United 
States  territory,  and  that  you  believed  he  acted  under  orders 
from  the  government  at  Washington. 

I  then  presented  to  you  the  governor's  protest  against 
any  such  occupation  or  claim.  I  represented  to  you  that 
the  fact  of  occupying  a  disputed  island  by  a  military  force 
necessitated  a  similar  action  on  our  part ;  that  again  in- 
volved the  imminent  risk  of  a  collision  between  the  /orccs, 
there  being  a  magistrate  of  each  nation  now  acting  on  the 
island,  either  of  whom  might  call  on  those  of  their  country 
for  aid. 

To  prevent  the  chance  of  such  collision,  I  suggested  that 
a  joint  military  occupation  might  take  place,  and  continue 
until  replies  could  be  received  from  our  respective  govern- 
ments;  and,  during  such  times,  that  the  commanding  offi- 
cers of  the  forces  should  control  and  adjudicate  between 
their  respective  countr\-men,  the    magistrates   being  with- 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  34I 

drawn  on  both  sides,  or  the  action  of  their  courts  suspended 
for  the  time  being,  their  employment  not  being  necessary 
under  a  joint  miUtary  occupation. 

I  suggested  this  course  as  apparently  the  only  one  left 
(short  of  entire  evacuation  by  the  troops  under  your  com- 
mand) likely  to  produce  the  object  so  much  to  be  desired, 
viz :  the  prevention  of  a  collision  between  the  forces  or 
authorities  of  the  two  countries,  landed  or  in  the  harbor  of 
San  Juan — an  event  which  must  lead  to  still  more  di'sastrous 
results,  by  permanently  estranging  the  friendly  relations 
subsisting  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  of 
America. 

You  replied  that  you  had  not  authority  to  conclude  such 
terms,  but  suggested  the  reference  of  them  to  General  Har- 
ney and  Governor  Douglas,  without  interference  in  any  way 
with  our  liberty  of  action. 

I  pointed  out  that  my  proposition  was  strictly  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  laid  down  in  Mr.  Marcy's  dispatch, 
and  that  yours,  on  the  other  hand,  offered  no  security 
against  the  occurrence  of  some  immediate  evil. 

That  as  officers  of  the  United  States  government  had 
committed  an  act  of  aggression  by  landing  an  armed  force 
on  this  island  pending  the  settlement  of  our  respective 
claims  to  its  sovereignty,  without  warning  to  us,  and  with- 
out giving  you  a  discretionary  power  of  making  an)^  neces- 
sary arrangements,  that  the  United  States  and  its  officers 
alone  must  be  responsible  for  any  consequences  that  might 
result,  either  immediate  or  future 

I  agreed  to  your  request  to  furnish  you  with  the  sub- 
stance of  the  conversation  in  writing,  and  concluded  b}' 
informing  you  that  having  now  made  what  seemed  to  me  a 
most  equitable  and  simple  proposition,  I  reserved  to  myself, 
in  the  event  of  your  non-acceptance  of  it,  entire  liberty  of 
action  either  for  the  protection  of  British  subjects  and  prop- 
erty, or  of  our  claims  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  island,  until 
they  are  settled  by  the  Northwest  Boundary  Commission, 
now  existing,  or    by  the   respective   governments. 

I  believe  I  have  now  given  you  the  substance  of  our  con- 
versation, and  have  only  to  add  my  regret  that  you  were 
not  able  to  agree  to  a  course  which  it  appears  to  me  would 
totally  avoid  the  risk  of  a  collision. 


342  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

The  responsibility  of  any  such  catastrophe  does  not,  I 
feel,  now  rest  on  me  or  on  her  Majesty's  representative  at 
Vancouver's  island. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  most  obedient,  humble 
servant, 

GEOFFREY  PHIPPS   HORNBY, 

Captain  and  Senior  Officer. 
Captain  George  Pickett, 

Commanding  Detachment  United  States  gth  Regiment, 

To  which  Captain  Pickett  replied : 

Military  Post, 
Island  of  San  Juan,  W.  T.,  August  3,  up.  m. 

Sir  :  I  have  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
communication  of  this  date,  in  reference  to  the  conversa- 
tion which  was  held  to-day  between  ourselves  and  Captains 
Prevost  and  Richards.  Your  recollection  of  said  conversa- 
tion seems  to  be  very  accurate.  There  is  one  point,  how- 
ever, which  I  dwelt  upon  particularly,  and  which  I  must 
endeavor,  as  the  officer  representing  my  government,  to 
impress  upon  you,  viz:  That,  as  a  matter  of  course,  I, 
being  here  under  orders  from  my  government,  cannot  allow 
any  joint  occupation  till  so  ordered  by  my  commanding  gen- 
eral, and  that  any  attempt  to  make  such  occupation  as  you 
have  proposed,  before  I  can  communicate  with  General 
Harney,  will  be  bringing  on  a  collision  which  ca)i  be  avoided 
by  awaiting  this  issue.  I  do  not  for  one  moment  imagine 
that  there  will  any  difficulty  occur  on  this  island  which  will 
render  a  military  interference  necessary ;  and  I  therefore 
deem  it  proper  to  state  that  I  think  no  discredit  can  reflect 
upon  either  of  us,  or  our  respective  flags,  by  remaining  in 
our  present  positions  until  we  have  an  opportunity  of  hear- 
ing from  those  higher  in  authority. 

I  hope  most  sincerely,  sir,  you  will  reflect  on  this,  and 
hope  you  may  coincide  with  me  in  my  conclusion. 
Should  you  see  fit  to  act  otherwise,  you  will  then  be  the 
person  who  will  bring  on  a  most  unfortunate  and  disastrous 
difficulty,  and  not  the  United  States  officials. 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  343 

I  have  thus  hurriedly  answered  your  communication  in 
order  to  avoid  any  delay  and  its  consequences. 

I  remain,  with  much  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  E.  PICKETT,, 
Captain  gth  Infantry,  Commanding  Post. 
Captain  G.  Phipps  Hornby, 
Commandiiig  her  Britannic  Majesty's  ship  "Tribune," 

Harbor  of  San  Juan,    Washington  Territory. 

On  the  2nd  day  of  August,  Governor  Douglas  issued  the 
following  proclamation : 

By  James  Douglas,  C.  B.,  governor  and  commander-in-chief 
in  and  over  the  colony  of  Vancouver's  island  and  its  de- 
pendencies, vice-admiral  of  the  same,  &c. 
The  sovereignty  of  the  island  of  San  Juan,  and  of  the 
whole  of  the  Haro  archipelago,  has  always  been  undeviat- 
ingly  claimed  to  be  in  the  crown  of  Great  Britian.     There- 
fore, I,  James  Douglas,  do  hereby,  formally  and  solemnly, 
protest  against  the  occupation  of  the  said  island,  or  any 
part  of  the  said  archipelago,  by  any  person  whatsoever,  for 
or  on  behalf  of  any  other  power,  hereby  protesting  and 
declaring  that  the  sovereignty  thereof  by  right  now  is,  and 
always  hath  been,  in  her  Majesty  Queen  Victoria  and  her 
predecessors,  Kings  of  Great  Britain. 

Given  under  my  hand  and  seal,  at  Victoria,  Vancouver's 
island,  on  this  second  day  of  August,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  fifty-nine,  and  in  the  twenty-third  year  of  her 
Majesty's  reign.  "  JAMES  DOUGLAS. 

To  which  General  Harney  replied  : 

Headquarters  Department  of  Oregon, 
Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.^  Align st  6,  i8jg. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  of  the  receipt  of 
an  official  copy  of  a  protest  made  by  you  to  the  occupation 
of  San  Juan  island,  in  Puget's  Sound,  by  a  company  of 
United  States  troops  under  my  command. 

This  official  copy  was  furnished  by  Captain  Hornby,  of 
her  Majesty's  ship  "Tribune,"  to  the  United  States  officer 
in  command  at  San  Juan  island.  Captain  George  Pickett, 
of  the  9th  infantry  of  the  American  army,  together  with  a 


344  LII^E  OF  GENERAL  HARNIT. 

communication  threatening  a  joint  occupation  of  San  Juan 
island  by  the  forces  of  her  Majesty's  ships  "  Tribune,"  "  Plum- 
per," and  "Satellite,"  now  in  the  harbor  of  that  island  b\' 
your  orders. 

As  the  military  commander  of  the  department  of  Oregon, 
assigned  to  that  command  by  the  orders  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  I  have  the  honor  to  state,  for  your  in- 
formation, that  by  such  authority  invested  in  me  I  placed  a 
military  command  upon  the  island  of  San  Juan  to  protect 
the  American  citizens  residing  on  that  island  from  the  in- 
sults and  indignities  which  the  British  authorities  of  Van- 
couver's island  and  the  establishment  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  recently  offered  them  by  sending  a  British  ship- 
of-war  from  Vancouver's  island  to  convey  the  chief  factor 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  to  San  Juan  for  the  purpose 
of  seizing  an  American  citizen  and  forcibly  transporting 
him  to  Vancouver's  island  to  be  tried  by  British  laws. 

I  have  reported  this  attempted  outrage  to  my  govern- 
ment, and  they  will  doubtless  seek  the  proper  redress  from 
the  British  government.  In  the  meantime,  I  have  the  honor 
to  inform  your  excellency  I  shall  not  permit  a  repetition  of 
that  insult,  and  shall  retain  a  command  on  San  Juan  island 
to  protect  its  citizens,  in  the  name  of  the  United  States, 
until  I  receive  further  orders  from  my  government. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient 
servant,  W.  S.  HARNEY, 

Brigadier  General  United  States  Army  Commanding. 

His  excellency  James  Doulgas,  C.  B., 

Governor  of  Vancouver  s  Isla^id,  &c., 

Vice-Admiral  of  the  same. 

He  also  approved  the  steps  taken  by  Captain  Pickett  in 
relation  to  the  occupation  of  San  Juan,  and  on  the  jth 
day  of  August  transmitted  to  the  officer  commanding  the 
naval  squadron  on  the  Pacific  coast,  Governor  Douglas' 
proclamation,  and  requested  him  to  order  such  a  naval 
force  to  Puget's  sound  as  he  could  spare,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  American  interests.  The  General  ordered  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Casey  to  reinforce  Captain  Pickett  with  four 
companies,  and    to  evacuate    forts    Steilacoom  and  Town- 


SAN  JUAN  DIFFICULTIES.  345 

send.  This,  of  course,  gave  rise  to  further  angry  corres- 
pondence between  the  British  officers  and  the  American 
commander.  The  situation  was  critical,  and  a  trifling  in- 
discretion might  have  been  the  occasion  of  a  war  between 
two  great  nations,  who  were  of  common  blood,  language, 
and  line. ;  .\  The  British  fleet  consisted  of  five  ships  of 
war,  carrying  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  guns,  and  nine- 
teen hundred  and  forty  men,  besides  which  there  was  an 
extra  force  of  six  hundred  sappers  and  miners  and  marines. 
It  was  not  known  whether  the  British  commander  would 
land  in  force  or  not.  He  could  very  easily  have  over- 
powered the  American  troops  under  Colonel  Casey  and 
Captain  Pickett.  But  fortunately  for  the  peace  of  both 
countries,  so  firm  had  been  the  stand  taken  by  General 
Harney,  and  so  prudent  and  wise  were  his  measures,  that 
no  collision  was  provoked,  and  the  matter  was  referred  to 
their  respective  governments  by  the  two  commanders. 

General  Harney  was  not  idle  while  things  stood  in  this 
menacing  attitude.  He  informed  the  Governor  of  Wash- 
ington Territory  of  the  state  of  affairs  and  indicated  that  he 
might  possibly  ask  for  volunteers  for  the  public  defence. 
He  also  communicated  with  General  Clarke,  commanding  in 
California,  and  made  such  dispositions  as  would,  in  the  event 
of  hostilities,  bring  speedy  reinforcements. 

The  correspondence  between  General  Harney  and  Gover- 
nor Douglas  of  Vancouver,  resulted  in  the  denial  by  the 
British  authorities  of  any  intention  to  outrage  American 
citizens  by  arresting  them  and  carrying  them  to  Victoria 
for  trial.  But  General  Harney  soon  produced  evidences  of 
the  fact ;  and  in  reply  to  the  Governor's  demand  for  the 
evacuation  of  the  island  of  San  Juan,  declared  his  intention 
to  maintain  his  forces  there  till  he  received  orders  from  his 
government. 

General  Scott  was  ordered  by  the  President  to  repair  to 
Oregon,  and  settle  the  matter  between  the  British  colonial 
authorities  and  the  American  settlers.     The  result  was  an 


346  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

amicable  adjustment,  and  the  ultimate  abandonment  of  all 
British  claim  to  the  island  of  San  Juan,  and  the  neighbor- 
ing archipelago. 

General  Harney  remained  in  command  of  the  department 
of  Oregon  until  July,  i860,  when  he  was  ordered  to  St.  Louis 
to  take  command  of  the  Department  of  the  West.  He 
remained  in  this  duty  until  November,  i860,  when  he  was 
relieved,  and  awaited  orders  until  May,  1861. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Vp/HE  annals  of  mankind  present  but  one  conflict  of 
I  arms  surpassing  in  the  scope  and  importance  of  its 
results  that  of  the  American  conflict  or  civil  war  pre- 
cipitated under  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
That  other  and  greater  conflict  was  the  revolution  that 
gave  to  the  world  the  American  Constitution  and  the 
American  nation.  Possible  and  sublime  as  was  that  great 
event  in  history  that  bequeathed  so  much  liberty  to  man- 
kind, it  left  ungathercd  the  seeds  of  disturbance  and  de- 
struction in  the  native  soil  of  freedom.  Before  the  revolu- 
tion of  1776  slavery  was  planted,  was  befriended  and  culti- 
vated on  American  soil.  It  was  the  enemy  of  freedom, 
and  a  feud  as  old  as  the  human  race — a  strife  between  free- 
dom and  slavery  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  was  transplanted 
where  the  Bible  and  the  cross  were  proclaimed  to  be  the 
supreme  authority  to  direct  the  action  of  men  in  social  and 
political  society.  But  time  demonstrated  a  new  and  pecul- 
iar problem  in  government  to  be  confronted  and  solved. 
Such  was  the  antagonism  between  freedom  and  slavery 
that  it  soon  grew  to  be  irreconcilable ;  and  so  seeing,  Mr. 
Jefferson  said  that  if  the  South  were  severed  from  the 
North,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  would  duly  transfer 
their  jealousy  from  New  England  to  Maryland  and  Virginia. 
When  General  Jackson  suppressed  nullification  in  South 
Carolina  he  foresaw  the  dangers  which  threatened  from  a 
disregard  of  the  authority  of  the  national  Government.  He 
said  that  nullification  would  rise  again,  in  some  future  time, 
in  the  disguise  of  the  slavery  agitation,  and  so  it  did.     But 

the   coming  contest,   gigantic    as    it    grew   to    be,  had    no 

347 


348  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

element  of  perpetuity,  no  power  to  create  and  establish 
enduring  conditions  of  disunion.  It  was  an  American  con- 
flict, and  all  its  causes  and  conditions  were  incidental  and 
transient,  and  destined  to  pass  away  like  the  mist  of  the 
morning. 

The  presidential  election  of  i860  had  elevated  to  the  chief 
office  of  the  nation  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  canvass  had 
been  one  of  great  violence  and  excitement,  and  threats 
were  made  of  secession  on  the  part  of  the  slave-holding 
States  from  the  Union.  The  people  of  those  States  who 
dominated  public  sentiment  professed  to  regard  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's ekction,  on  an  anti-slavery  platfoim,  hostile  to  the 
rights  of  the  Southern  States,  and  as  such  a  sufficient  justi- 
fication for  a  dissolution  of  their  relations  in  the  family  of 
the  Union. 

Although  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  did  not  carry  with  it  a 
single  pledge  of  hostility  to  slavery  in  the  then  existing 
States,  it  was  another  and  more  advanced  step  in  the  field  of 
party  discussion  and  contest,  which  had  already  assumed  a 
positive  and  aggressive  form  in  the  struggle  for  freedom  in 
Kansas,  and  which  was  transferred  from  that  young  terri- 
tory, in  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  to  the  older  States 
of  the  South,  where  it  was  easy  to  be  seen  that  a  long- 
threatened  storm,  an  irrepressible  conflict,  was  soon  to  cul- 
minate in  a  national  contest. 

The  civil  contest  between  the  slave  and  free  States  was  a 
great  event  in  history,  and  has  only  been  surpassed  by  that 
mighty  social  volcano,  the  French  revolution.  It  came 
upon  the  Republic  like  a  gathering,  moving,  mighty  storm. 
It  was  the  execution  of  the  Will  of  the  eternal  God  to  dis- 
pose of,  by  revolution,  that  which  man  failed  to  dispose  of 
by  legislation.  It  was  a  conflict  to  eliminate  slavery  from 
our  political  organism.  It  called  into  the  battle-field  larger 
and  better  equipped  armies  than  were  ever  before  arrayed 
against  each  other  in  deadly  combat.  It  gave  a  larger 
experience  and  resulted  in   more  important  consequences 


THE  CIVIL  WAR. 


349 


than  were  ever  before  given  to  man  in  any  other  equal 
number  of  years.  It  called  into  public  discussion  the  full 
talent  of  the  American  people  ;  of  the  press  and  the  pulpit, 
of  the  forum  and  of  the  bench,  of  skill  and  genius,  of 
music  and  oratory.  In  its  onward  movement  it  spread 
social  disorder,  and  the  wealth  of  communities,  towns,  cities 
and  States  fell  into  decay  and  ruin,  and  laws  and  religions 
were  of  no  avail  to  maintain  order  and  piety,  in  a  land 
where  belligerent  States  had  arrayed  themselves  against  the 
authority  of  the  constitution. 

The  civil  conflict  thus  precipitated,  differed  widely  from 
all  preceding  internecine  struggles.  For  though  it  be  true 
that  revolutions  do  not  go  backward,  it  is  the  general  rule 
among  the  people  of  the  earth  for  oppression  to  be  on  the 
side  of  constituted  authority.  Not  so  in  the  civil  conflict. 
Freedom  was  the  boon  of  the  national  authority,  slavery 
the  chief  corner-stone  of  the  rebellion.  Victor  Hugo  had 
called  American  slavery  the  greatest  moral  deformity  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

At  the  approach  of  this  unusual  conflict — for  it  was  at 
variance  in  its  essential  character  with  any  other  conflict 
of  arms  known  to  history — strong  men  and  brave  women, 
without  regard  to  education,  station,  or  place  of  birth,  took 
sides  in  the  issue  according  to  the  circumstances  and  sur- 
roundings at  the  hour  of  peril,  yielding  in  the  main,  how- 
ever, to  the  side  on  which  education,  party  politics  and  reli- 
gion  had   overshadowed   and   disregarded   patriotism. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  conflict  the  army  of  the 
United  States  was  more  limited  in  numbers  than  any  other 
class  of  professional  men.  It  seemed  that  the  nation  had 
almost  learned  to  live  without  the  use  of  soldiers,  and  what- 
ever scattered  remnants  there  were  upon  the  frontier  or  the 
coast  parts  of  the  country,  they  too,  in  common  with  the 
entire  people  in  every  rank  of  life,  took  sides  in  the  great 
struggle,  accordingly  as  influence  of  one  kind  or  another 
directed  their  action. 


350  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Generals  of  various  official  ranks  espoused  the  cause  of 
the  South,  as  against  the  Government,  which  they  saw  fit 
to  call  the  North.  General  Harney  had  just  returned  from 
long  and  arduous  duty  on  the  Pacific  coast.  He  was  not  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  nor  in  any  wise  a  politician.  He 
had  been  taught  by  Jackson  that  both  the  citizen  and  the 
soldier  must  be  patriotic.  The  struggle  came  on  like  a 
mighty  storm,  but  General  Harney,  who  had  confronted 
the  enemies  of  his  country  on  unnumbered  battle-fields,  was 
not  to  be  deterred  and  driven  from  his  country's  flag  in  the 
midst  of  peril  to  the  Union.  He  was  a  soldier  of  the  Re- 
public. 

On  returning  from  the  Pacific  coast  he  was  placed 
in  command  at  St.  Louis.  He  visited  Washington  before 
the  expiration  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  term  of  office,  and  was 
ordered  to  report  to  the  President  twice  a  day  to  consult 
with  him  upon  the  affairs  of  the  country.  He  advised  Mr. 
Buchanan  to  fortify  the  seaboard  upon  the  Southern  coast ; 
but  notwithstanding  President  Buchanan  constantly  sought 
the  counsel  of  General  Harney,  he  as  often  ignored  it 
because  of  the  advice  and  influence  of  John  B.  Floyd,  his 
Secretary  of  War. 

Ascertaining  the  counteracting  influence  of  Floyd  upon 
Buchanan,  Harney  returned  to  St.  Louis  and  assumed  com- 
mand. Mr.  Lincoln  was  soon  inaugurated,  and  new 
relations  and  duties  presented  themselves  for  every  citizen, 
as  well  as  every  soldier  of  the  Government.  The  strife  of 
many  years  of  bitter  partisan  discussion,  and  a  conflict  of 
interests,  had  engendered  a  bitter  feeling  of  antagonism 
between  the  people  of  the  South  and  the  North.  General 
Harney  had  been  bred  in  the  camp  and  on  duty  to  the  pro- 
fession of  arms.  He  took  no  part  in  politics  or  civil  strife. 
He  had  learned  by  the  observations  of  a  life-time  many  of 
the  arts  of  the  politicians  and  the  plotters  for  power,  but 
he  had  always  held  himself  aloof  from  intrigue,  and  in 
official    duty    acted   alone    the   part  of  the  soldier.      The 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  351 

approach  of  the  civil  war  compelled  him  to  confront  new 
problems  in  official  life.  St.  Louis  was  his  home ;  here  he 
had  married  and  gathered  around  him  a  large  circle  of 
friends  and  relatives,  composed  of  wealthy  and  influential 
citizens  ;  these,  in  the  main,  were  sympathizers  with  the 
South,  and  many  of  them  participants  in  the  rebellion. 
This  circumstance  of  domestic  and  social  life  was  unjustly 
interpreted  as  unfavorable  to  the  official  position  of  Gen- 
eral Harney,  and,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
leading  men  who  sprang  like  magic  into  power  on  the 
side  of  the  Government,  had  no  personal  acquaintance 
with  him,  contributed  to  prejudice  many  good  people 
against  him.  General  Harney  had  seen  the  work  of  poli- 
ticians in  Kansas,  and  he  would  not  yield  to  their  solicita- 
tions to  step  outside  of  his  duty  as  a  soldier  to  serve  them. 
He  saw  the  same  elements  at  work  in  St.  Louis  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  civil  war  that  he  had  seen  in  Kansas, 
and  he  only  knew  the  soldier's  duty  to  be  that  of  a  pre- 
server of  the  peace.  In  this  capacity  General  Harney  felt 
himself  master  of  the  situation.  He  felt  that  he  had 
learned  from  the  experience  of  many  battle-fields  how  to 
measure  the  strength  of  his  enemy,  and  that  he  could 
determine  the  measure  of  his  own  ability  to  assert  his  own 
authority. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  volwme  to  present  a  detailed 
account  of  the  military  operations,  or  of  the  acts  of  men 
in  St.  Louis  during  the  time  that  General  Harney  was  in 
command  of  the  Department  of  the  West,  but  only  so  far 
as  to  fully  present  and  vindicate  three  important  and  prom- 
inent facts  : 

I.  That  General  Harney  was  a  loyal  and  devoted  soldier, 
inflexibly  attached  to  the  Union  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
constitution ;  and 

II.  That  his  removal  from  the  command  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  West  was  not  brought  about  because  of  a 
doubt  of  his  loyalty,  but 


352  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY, 

III.  Because  he  was  in  command,  and  at  one  of  the 
most  important  points  on  the  continent,  and  was  in  the  way 
of  schemers  and  intriguing  plotters  for  plunder  and  power. 

To  demonsti^ate  these  things  in  the  defence  of  a  great 
soldier,  a  man  who  was  a  pillar  in  the  national  life,  and  to 
vindicate  his  honor,  his  patriotism,  and  his  great  name, 
shall  be  the  extent  of  the  presentation  of  military  affairs 
in  St.  Louis  during  the  spring  and  summer  of  i86i. 

The  elements  of  civil  war  were  rapidly  organizing,  with 
full  intent  on  the  part  of  the  general  Government  and  those 
who  had  determined  to  resist  its  authority,  to  make  a 
gigantic  struggle.  On  the  nth  day  of  April,  1 86 1,  Gen- 
eral Harney  issued  the  following  order  in  reference  to  the 
disposition  of  troops  : 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  April  ii,  1861. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of 
your  letter  of  the  5th  instant,  directing  that  six  companies 
of  artillery,  three  from  Fort  Ridgely  and  three  from  Fort 
Randall,  rapair  to  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  order  for  the  movement  from  Fort  Randall  has  been 
sent  by  telegraph  to  Council  Bluffs,  to  be  forwarded  thence 
by  special  messenger.  The  steamer  "  Omaha  "  has  been 
chartered  by  the  assistant  quartermaster  here  to  convey  the 
troops  from  Fort  Randall  to  Saint  Joseph,  the  terminus  of 
the  railroad.  The  "Omaha"  is  now  at  Saint  Joseph  and 
instructions  have  been  sent  to  that  point  by  telegraph  for 
her  to  leave  for  Fort  Randall  without  delay. 

The  orders  for  the  movements  from  Forts  Ridgely,  Rip- 
ley, and  Ambercrombie  were  transmitted  by  telegraph  to 
Saint  Paul,  to  be  forwarded  thence  by  special  messenger  to 
the  several  posts  concerned ;  but  since  they  were  issued  I 
have  received  a  copy  of  your  despatch  of  the  6th  instant 
to  Major  Morris,  commanding  at  Fort  Ridgely,  requiring 
him  to  proceed  at  once  with  his  command,  save  a  small 
detachment,  to  the  city  of  New  York,  instead  of  waiting  to 
be  relieved  by  a  company  of  the  2d  infantry,  as  at  first 
directed. 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  353 

I  have,  therefore,  recalled,  by  telegraph,  my  own  order  to 
Major  Morris. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Cotnvianding. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  E.  D.  Townsend, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Headquarters 

of  the  Army,  IVas/wigton,  D.  C. 

Affairs  in  St.  Louis  were  now  assuming  a  more  active 
character,  and  General  Harney  asked  instructions  from 
Washington  in  reference  to  the  management  of  the  troops 
at  the  arsenal. 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  April  i6,  1861. 

Sir:  In  the  present  state  of  affairs  in  this  quarter  I  deem 
it  to  be  my  duty  to  make  a  special  report  with  reference  to 
the  St.  Louis  arsenal. 

The  arsenal  buildings  and  grounds  are  completely  com- 
manded by  hills  immediately  in  their  rear,  and  within 
easy  range.  I  learn  from  sources  which  I  consider 
reliable  that  it  is  the  intention  of  the  executive  of 
this  State  to  cause  batteries  to  be  erected  on  these 
hills,  and  also  upon  the  island  opposite  to  the  arsenal. 

I  am  further  informed  that  should  such  batteries  be 
erected  it  is  contemplated  by  the  State  authorities,  in  the 
event  of  the  secession  of  the  State  from  the  Union,  to  de- 
mand the  surrender  of  the  arsenal. 

The  command  at  the  arsenal  at  this  time  consists  of  nine 
officers  and  about  four  hundred  and  thirty  enlisted  men, 
made  up  of  a  detachment  of  ordnance,  Captain  Totten's 
company  of  the  2d  artillery.  Captain  Lyon's  company 
of  the  2d  infantry  and  4th  artillery,  and  general  service 
recruits. 

While  this  force  would  probably  be  able  to  resist  suc- 
cessfully an  assaulting  party,  unless  greatly  superior  to 
itself  in  numbers,  it  could  not  withstand  the  fire  of  batteries 
situated  as  above  indicated. 

S3 


354  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

Under  these  circumstances,  I  respectfully  request  instruc- 
tions for  my  guidance. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Commanding. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  E.  D.  Townsend, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Headqttarters 

of  the  Army,  Washington,  D.  C. 

On  the  20th  of  April,  General  Harney  again  referred  the 
affairs  of  the  arsenal  to  the  Adjutant  General  at  Wash- 
ington, urging  his  immediate  attention  to  the  matter  of 
securing  an  officer  of  rank  for  the  command.  He  also  tele- 
graphed to  the  same  purpose  on  the  same  day.  The  dis- 
patches are  as  follows : 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  April  20,  i86i. 
Sir  :  I  deem  it  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  public 
interests  that  an  officer  of  rank  -should  be  forthwith  assigned 
to  the  command  of  the  troops  at  the  St.  Louis  arsenal,  and  to 
the  charge  of  the  defences  at  that  place.  In  making  this 
recommendation,  I  take  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  to 
the  zeal  and  fidelity  which  have  been  displayed  by  the  pres- 
ent commander,  Captain  N.  Lyon,  2d  infantry.  There  are 
reasons,  however,  which,  in  my  judgment,  render  it  expedi- 
ent that  the  change  in  the  command  I  have  suggested 
should  be  made  without  delay. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfullv,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Commanding. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  E.  D.  Townsend, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Headquarters 

of  the  Army,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Militar\'  affairs  by  this  time  were  growmg  more  compli- 
cated, and  it  was  evident  that  however  loyal  the  friends  of 
the  Government  were,  rival  elements  began  to  show  them- 
selves, and  General  Harney  left  for  Washington  in  obedi- 
ence to  orders  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  on  the  23d  day 
of  April,  1 861. 


THE  CIV'IL  WAR.  355 

On  his  way  to  Washington,  he  was  captured  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  by  the  Confederates,  on  the  25th  of  April,  1861. 
The  train  was  stopped  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  after  some 
delay  General  Harney  asked  an  officer  or  employe  on  the 
train,  what  caused  the  great  delay.  The  riian  answered, 
•"  General,  I  do  not  know,  but  I  heard  your  name  men- 
tioned frequently."  "Ah,"  said  the  General.  Soon  a  young 
pedantic  officer  entered  the  car  and  approaching  General 
Harney,  said,  "  General,  you  are  my  prisoner."  He  had 
no  sooner  declared  his  authority,  than  General  Harney 
seized  him  and  with  the  declaration  of  "  God  damn  your 
soul,  get  out  of  here  !"  brought  him  to  the  floor  of  the 
car,  and  soon  convinced  the  young  and  officious  stripling 
that  he,  General  Harney,  was  master.  Soon  after  this  first 
onset,  several  officers  came  into  the  car  and  expressed  to 
General  Harney  their  regret  for  the  ofificiousness  of  the 
young  man,  but  told  the  General  he  must  consider  himself 
a  prisoner.  The  General  answered  that  he  could  not  alone 
fight  an  army,  and  yielded.  The  bluff  old  soldier,  who  had 
been  victor  on  many  battle-fields,  felt  humiliated  when 
compelled  to  yield  to  forces  against  which  he  had  no  con- 
tract to  contend.  Made  the  first  prisoner  of  the  war,  he 
was  taken  to  Richmond,  where  he  met  those  in  high  au- 
thority on  the  Confederate  side;  many  of  whom  were  old  ac- 
quaintances. Mrs.  Governor  Letcher  met  him  as  an  old  and 
admired  friend  and  implored  him  to  join  with  the  South  in 
the  great  conflict ;  but  the  General,  while  deeply  impressed 
with  a  sense  of  high  regard  at  the  friendship  born  of  earlier 
and  happier  days,  stood  unshaken  in  his  expressions  of  de- 
votion to  the  flag  of  the  Union.  Governor  Letcher  met  him 
as  an  old  friend,  and  told  him  that  his  arrest  at  Harper's 
Ferr^'  was  a  blunder  made  by  an  incompetent  officer. 

The  General  had  not  been  long  in  Richmond  before  he 
was  released,  and  departed  for  Washington.  His  fraternal 
associations  at  Richmond  were  of  the  most  pleasant  char- 
acter, bringing  back  green  spots  in  memory's  waste,  the 


356  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

happy  recollections  of  by-gone  years.  In  a  public  way  his 
associations  were  sad  and  full  of  regret.  Early  on  his 
arrival  he  met  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  the  hope  and  the 
stay  of  the  rebellion.  On  meeting  General  Lee,  General 
Harney  said : 

"  General,  I  am  sorry  to  meet  you  in  this  way." 

General  Lee  answered  : 

"  General  Harney,  I  had  no  idea  of  taking  any  part  in 
this  matter;  I  wanted  to  stay  at  Arlington  and  raise  pota- 
toes for  my  family,  but  my  friends  forced  me  into  it." 

Sad  enough,  sad  enough  !  two  great  war  chiefs,  born  and 
reared  and  sheltered  under  the  same  flag,  meet  at  the  open- 
ing of  a  great  crisis,  a  great  conflict,  one  poised  in  self-con- 
scious majesty,  because  unshaken  in  his  devotion  to  the 
flag  he  had  carried  to  victory  on  so  many  battle-fields,  the 
other  sad  and  shaken  in  his  manhood  for  espousing  a  cause 
that  was  not  vindicated  by  his  highest  judgment. 

General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  also  met  General  Harney  at 
Richmond,  and  told  him  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  rebel- 
lion, but  said  that  all  his  relatives  lived  in  Virginia,  and 
that  they  would  execrate  him  if  he  did  not  join  the  cause 
of  rebellion,  and  that  he  was  forced  to  take  the  side  he  did. 

Here  we  have  the  testimony  and  expressions  of  regret 
from  two  military'  men  of  high  rank,  of  great  mental 
capacity  and  personal  worth,  along  side  of  whom  is  placed 
in  contrast  the  name  and  character  of  General  Harney. 
On  one  side  is  maintained  a  lofty  character  and  an  unques- 
tioned patriotism  ;  on  the  other  side  are  the  expressions  of 
fallen  hopes  and  a  lost  cause. 

On  his  way  from  Richmond  to  Washington  General  Har- 
ney met  with  one  constant  ovation.  At  every  station  the 
people  crowded  to  see  the  war  chief  of  the  West.  He  was 
reluctant  to  respond  to  any  demonstration  in  favor  of  his 
distinction.  On  one  occasion  the  people  would  not  allow 
the  train  to  leave  the  depot  until  General  Harney  made 
some    response   to  their  demonstration ;   he  was  therefore 


1 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  357 

urged  to  put  his  head  out  of  the  car  window  and  express 
some  token  of  regard  to  his  anxious  admirers,  and  this  he 
did  with  reluctance.  The  people  were  devoted  to  him, 
they  knew  his  greatness  and  his  honor.  He  only  knew  his 
duty  and  his  devotion  to  the  flag  of  his  country. 

On  the  29th  of  April,  General  Williams  notified  Adjutant 
General  Thomas,  at  Washington,  of  the  departure  of  Gen- 
eral Harney  for  Washington : 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 

St.  Louis,  Missouri,  April  2g,  1861. 
Sir:  In  the  absence  of  a  department  commander,  I  have 
the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt,  this  morning,  of 
your  letter  of  the  21st  instant  to  Brigadier-General  Harney, 
relieving  that  officer  from  the  command  of  the  Department 
of  the  West,  and  stating  that  the  command  will  devolve  up- 
on the  senior  officer  in  the  department. 

General  Harney  left  this  city  for  Washington,  April 
23,  under  the  operation  of  your  telegraphic  despatch  of 
April  21. 

Colonel  E.  B.  Alexander,  loth  infantry,  stationed  at  Fort 
Laramie,  is  now  the  senior  officer  in  the  Department  of  the 
West.  I  have  to-day  sent  a  despatch  to  him,  (by  telegraph 
as  far  as  Fort  Kearney),  advising  him  that  the  command 
of  the  department  devolves  upon  him. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

S.  WILLIAMS, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 
Colonel  L,  Thomas, 

Adjutant  General  of  the  Army, 

Washington,  D.  C, 

This  was  the  commencement  of  a  succession  of  acts 
designed  to  result  in  the  final  removal  of  General  Harney 
from  the  command  of  the  Department  of  the  West.  On 
the  loth  of  April,  and  before  the  return  of  General  Harney 
from  Washington,  Camp  Jackson  was  taken,  the  official  cor- 
respondence between  General  Lyon  and  General  D.  M. 
Frost  being  as  given  below  : 


35o  life  of  general  harney. 

Headquarters  United  States  Troops, 
St.  Louis,  May  lO,  1861. 

Sir:  Your  command  is  regarded  as  evidently  hostile 
toward  the  government  of  the  United  States.  It  is  for  the 
most  part  made  up  of  those  secessionists  who  have  openly 
avowed  their  hostility  to  the  general  government,  and  have 
been  plotting  the  seizure  of  its  property  and  the  overthrow 
of  its  authority. 

You  are  openly  in  communication  with  the  so-called 
Southern  Confederacy,  which  is  now  at  war  with  the  United 
States,  and  you  are  receiving  at  your  camp  from  the  said 
Confederacy,  ur.der  its  flag,  large  supplies  of  material  of  war, 
most  of  which  is  known  to  be  the  property  of  the  United 
States. 

These  extraordinary  preparations  plainly  indicate  none 
other  than  the  well-known  purpose  of  the  governor  of  this 
State,  under  whose  orders  you  are  acting,,  and  whose  pur- 
pose, recently  communicated  to  the  legislature,  has  just 
been  responded  to  by  that  body  in  the  most  unparalleled 
legislation,  having  in  direct  view  hostilities  to  the  general 
government  and  co-operating  with  the  enemies. 

In  view  of  these  considerations,  and  your  failure  to  dis- 
perse in  obedience  to  the  proclamation  of  the  President, 
and  of  the  eminent  necessity  of  State  policy  and  welfare, 
and  obligations  imposed  upon  me  by  instructions  from 
Washington,  it  is  my  duty  to  demand,  and  I  do  hereby 
demand,  of  you  an  immediate  surrender  of  your  command, 
with  no  other  conditions  than  that  all  persons  surrendering 
under  this  demand  shall  be  humanely  treated.  Believing 
myself  prepared  to  enforce  this  demand,  one  half-hour's 
time  before  doing  so  will  be  allowed  for  your  compliance 
therewith. 

N.  LYON, 
Capt.  2d  Infantry,  Commanding  Troopl. 

General  D.  M.  Frost. 

General  Frost,  being  in  no  condition  to  withstand  an 
attack  by  the  troops  under  Captain  L}'on,  yielded  to  the 
demand  of  the  latter  and  surrendered  his  forces.  The  fol- 
lowing letter  from  General  Frost  to  General  Harney  ex- 
plains  what  followed: 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  359 

St.  Louis  Arsenal,  Missouri,  May  it,  i86i. 

Sir:  In  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri, which  have  been  existing  for  some  years,  and  in 
obedience  to  the  orders  of  the  governor,  on  Monday  last 
I  entered  into  an  encampment  with  the  militia  force  of  St. 
Louis  county  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  the  same  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  United  States  and  of  this 
State. 

Every  officer  and  soldier  in  my  command  had  taken  with 
uplifted  hand  the  following  oath,  to-wit : 

"  You  each  and  every  one  of  you  do  solemnly  swear  that 
you  will  honestly  and  faithfully  serve  the  State  of  Missouri 
against  all  enemies,  and  that  you  will  do  your  utmost  to 
sustain  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  and 
of  this  State,  against  all  violence  of  whatsoever  kind  or 
description  ;  and  you  do  further  swear  that  you  will  well 
and  truly  execute  and  obey  the  legal  orders  of  all  officers 
properly  placed  over  you  whilst  on  duty.  So  help  you 
God." 

Whilst  in  the  peaceable  performance  of  the  duties  de- 
volved upon  me  and  my  command  under  these  laws,  my 
encampment  was  yesterday  surrounded  by  an  overwhelm- 
ing force  of  armed  men  acting  under  the  command  of 
Captain  N.  Lyon,  2d  infantry,  United  States  army,  and 
called  upon  by  him,  through  a  written  communication, 
marked  "A,"  accompanying  this.  To  which  communica- 
tion I  replied  in  the  following  terms,  to-wit : 

Camp  Jackson,  Missouri,  May  lo,  1861. 
Sir:  I  never  for  a  moment  having  conceived  the  idea 
that  so  illegal  and  unconstitutional  a  demand  as  I  have  just 
received  from  you  would  be  made  by  an  officer  of  the 
United  States  army,  I  am  wholly  unprepared  to  defend  my 
command  from  this  unwarranted  attack,  and  shall  there- 
fore be  forced  to  comply  with  your  demand. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 
Brigadier-General  D.  M.   FROST, 
Commanding  Camp  Jackson,  M.  M. 
Captain  N.  Lyon, 

Commanding  United  States  Troops. 

My  command  was,  in  accordance  with  the  above,  deprived 


360  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  their  arms  and  surrendered  into  the  hands  of  Captain 
Lyon.  After  which,  whilst  thus  disarmed  and  surrounded, 
a  fire  was  opened  upon  a  portion  of  it  by  his  troops  and  a 
number  of  my  men  put  to  death,  together  with  several  inno- 
cent lookers  on,  men,  women,  and  children. 

My  command  was  then  marched  as  prisoners  of  war  in 
triumph  to  thisplace. 

I  am  now  informed,  as  I  was  at  the  time  of  the  surrender, 
by  the  captain,  that  my  command  may  be  released  upon 
the  officers  and  men  giving  their  parole  "  not  to  take  up 
arms  or  to  serve  in  a  militar}^  capacity  against  the  United 
States  during  the  present  civil  war." 

Against  the  whole  proceeding  of  Captain  Lyon,  as  well 
as  against  the  terms  of  release,  I  most  earnestly  protest, 
for  the  following  reasons  : 

That  in  addition  to  the  obligations  of  loyalty  which  rest 
upon  every  citizen,  every  man  of  my  command  now  held  as 
a  prisoner  has  voluntarily  taken  an  oath  to  sustain  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  United  States. 

That  when  my  camp  was  attacked  in  this  unaccountable 
manner,  and  during  the  previous  days  of  its  existence,  the 
only  flags  that  floated  there  were  those  of  the  United  States 
with  a/l  the  stars,  and  its  fellow  bearing  the  coat  of  arms 
of  the  State  of  Missouri. 

That,,  in  addition  to  all  this,  on  the  morning  before  this 
attack  was  made,  I  addressed  to  Captain  Lyon  a  communi- 
cation informing  him  of  the  proffer  of  services  I  had  per- 
sonally made  of  myself  and  of  my  command,  and  if  neces- 
sary, the  whole  power  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  to  protect 
the  United  States  property,  and  assuring  him  that  I  had  in 
no  respect  changed  those  views  or  opinions  either  of  my 
own  relations  or  through  any  orders  emanating  from  my 
constitutional  commander. 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  I  appeal  to  you,  as  the 
chief  representative  of  the  Ignited  States  in  this  depart- 
ment, for  justice  on  behalf  of  those  loyal  citizens  who  are 
now  held  as  prisoners  of  war,  captured  under  and  marched 
to  their  place  of  confinement  with  the  flag  of  the  Union 
flying  over  their  heads.  I  ask  that  you  will  not  put  upon 
the  command  the  additional  indignity  of  requiring  us  to 
give  our  parole  when  we  have  already  given  our  oath  in 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  36 1 

support  of  the  Constitution,  but  that  you  will  order  our 
restoration  to  the.  liberties  of  which  we  have  illegally  been 
deprived,  as  well  as  of  the  property  of  the  State  and  indi- 
viduals also,  as  the  larger  portion  of  the  equipments  have 
been  purchased  with  the  private  funds  of  the  individuals  of 
my  command,  both  officers  and  men. 

I  trust  that  such  as  have  been  so  purchased  will,  at  least, 
be  restored  to  the  proper  owners. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

D.  M.  FROST, 
Brigadier  General,  Missouri  Volunteer  Militia. 
General  Wm.  S.  Harxey, 

Commanding  the  Department  of  the  West, 

United  States  Army. 

The  political  excitement  began  to  intensify,  and  people 
everywhere  began  to  procure  private  arms  for  any  emer- 
gency. 

On  the  lOth  of  May,  i36i,  it  was  announced  in  the  city 
papers  that  General  Harney  had  been  reappointed  to  the 
command  of  the  Department  of  the  West,  and  on  the  suc- 
ceeding day,  the  nth,  he  arrived  in  St.  Louis,  from  Wash- 
ington, and  reassumed  command. 

On  taking  command,  General  Harney  reported  to  the 
Department  at  Washington  as  follows ; 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 

St.  Louis,  Missouri,  May  13,  1861. 

Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  report,  for  the  information  of 
the  general-in-chief,  that,  in  obedience  to  the  instructions 
of  the  Hon.  Secretary  of  War,  communicated  through  the 
adjutant  general  of  the  army,  I  resumed  command  of  the 
Department  of  the  West  the  iith  instant. 

On  my  arrival  at  Saint  Louis  I  found  very  great  excite- 
ment prevailing  throughout  the  community  in  consequence 
of  the  capture,  on  the  loth  instant,  of  the  brigade  of  Mis- 
souri militia,  under  the  command  of  Brigadier  General  D, 
M.  Frost,  while  in  camp  near  this  city,  by  the  United 
States  forces,  under  the  command  of  Captain  N.  Lyon,  2d 
infantry.      I    am   informed  that   a  detailed    report   of  that 


362  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

affair  was  forwarded  previous  to  my  resuming  command  of 
the  department,  but  I  deem  it  proper  to  state  that  tlie  con- 
duct of  Captain  L)'on  on  the  occasion  meets  with  my 
entire  approval. 

As  serious  apprehensions  were  entertained  yesterday 
morning  that  the  excitement  existing  in  the  city  would 
result  in  an  outbreak  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours  unless 
allayed,  I  deemed  it  necessary  to  issue  a  proclamation,  of 
which  the  enclosed  is  a  copy,  and  which  I  am  assured  was 
well  received,  and  had  the  effect  to  tranquilize  the  public 
mind. 

I  also  ordered  up  from  the  arsenal  some  two  hundred  and 
fifty  regular  troops,  with  four  pieces  of  artiller}'',  to  aid  the 
civil  authorities  in  the  preservation  of  the  public  peace. 

I  am  happy  to  add  that  all  indications  of  the  threatened 
disturbance  have  disappeared. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY. 
Brigadier  General,  Commanding. 

Lieutenant  Colonel  E.  D.  Townsend, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General,  Headquarters 

of  the  Army,  Washington,  D.  C 

On  Sunday,  June  12th,  after  the  arrival  of  General 
Harney  from  Washington,  intense  feeling  pervaded  the 
city.  The  capture  of  Camp  Jackson  stimulated  the  friends 
of  the  Union  and  the  friends  of  the  so-called  Southern  Con- 
federacy to  a  high  state  of  excitement.  The  long  and 
boastful  spirit  of  self-constituted  aristocracy,  founded  upon 
slavery,  felt  that  it  was  called  upon  to  humiliate  itself  by 
having  to  confront  the  democratic  spirit  founded  upon  free 
labor. 

General  Harney,  full  of  the  spirit  of  manhood,  and  be- 
lieving, from  his  youth  up,  that  slavery  was  wrong,  and  had 
often  so  expressed  himself  in  the  army,  only  to  be  resented 
with  vindictive  retorts,  was  not  the  man  to  step  to  the  front 
in  its  defence  when  the  nation  was  assaulted. 

But  he  felt  that  he  had  the  power  to  keep  peace  in  St. 
Louis  and  the  State  of  Missouri.     He  believed   that  the 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  363 

people  wanted  peace  and  safety  more  than  war,  and  he  at 
once  issued  the  following 

PROCLAMATION: 

Military  Department  of  the  West, 

St.  Louis,  Missouri,  May  14,  1861. 
To  the  people  of  the  State  of  Missouri  : 

On  my  return  to  the  duties  of  the  command  of  this 
department,  I  find,  greatly  to  my  astonishment  and  morti- 
fication, a  most  extraordinary  state  of  things  existing  in 
this  State,  deeply  affecting  the  stability  of  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  the  government  and  other 
interests  of  Missouri  itself. 

As  a  citizen  of  Missouri,  owing  allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  and  having  interests  in  common  with  you,  I  feel  it 
my  duty,  as  well  as  privilege,  to  extend  a  warning  voice  to 
my  fellow-citizens  against  the  common  dangers  that 
threaten  us,  and  to  appeal  to  your  patriotism  and  sense  of 
justice  to  exert  all  your  moral  powers  to  avert  them. 

It  is  with  regret  that  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  recent  act  of  the  general  assembly  of  Missouri, 
known  as  the  military  bill,  which  is  the  result,  no  doubt, 
of  the  temporary  excitement  that  now  pervades  the  public 
mind. 

This  bill  cannot  be  regarded  in  any  other  light  than  an 
indirect  secession  ordinance,  ignoring  even  the  forms  re- 
sorted to  by  other  States.  Manifestly  its  most  material 
provisions  are  in  conflict  with  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States.  To  this  extent  it  is  a  nullity,  and  can- 
not, and  ought  not,  to  be  upheld  or  regarded  by  the  good 
citizens  of  Missouri.  There  are  obligations  and  duties 
resting  upon  the  people  of  Missouri  under  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  United  States  which  are  paramount,  and 
which,  I  trust,  you  will  carefully  consider  and  weigh  well 
before  you  will  allow  yourselves  to  be  carried  out  of  the 
Union,  under  the  form  of  yielding  obedience  to  this  military 
bill,  which  is  clearly  in  violation  of  your  duties  as  citizens 
of  the  United  States. 

It  must  be  apparent  to  every  one  who  has  taken  a  proper 
and  unbiased  view  of  the  subject,  that  whatever  may  be 
the  termination   of  the  unfortunate  condition  of  things  in 


364  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

respect  to  the  so-called  "Cotton  States,"  Missouri  must 
share  the  destiny  of  the  Union.  Her  geographical  position, 
her  soil,  productions,  and,  in  short,  all  her  material  interests, 
point  to  this  result.  We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  against  this 
controlling  fact.  It  is  seen,  and  its  force  is  felt  throughout 
the  nation. 

So  important  is  this  regarded  to  the  great  interests  of 
the  countr}',  that  I  venture  to  express  the  opinion  that  the 
whole  power  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  if 
necessar\%  will  be  exerted  to  maintain  Missouri  in  her  pres- 
ent position  in  the  Union.  I  express  to  you,  in  all  frank- 
ness and  sincerity',  my  own  deliberate  convictions,  without 
assuming  to  speak  for  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
whose  authority,  here  and  elsewhere,  I  shall  at  all  times, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  endeavor  faithfully  to  uphold. 

I  desire  above  all  things  most  earnestly  to  invite  my  fel- 
low-citizens dispassionately  to  consider  their  true  interests 
as  well  as  their  true  relation  to  the  government  under  which 
we  live  and  to  which  we  owe  so  much. 

In  this  connection,  I  desire  to  direct  attention  to  one 
subject  which  no  doubt  will  be  made  the  pretext  for  more 
or  less  popular  excitement.  I  allude  to  the  recent  transac- 
tions at  Camp  Jackson,  near  St.  Louis.  It  is  not  proper 
for  me  to  comment  upon  the  official  conduct  of  my  prede- 
cessor in  command  of  this  department,  but  it  is  right  and 
proper  for  the  people  of  Missouri  to  know  that  the  main 
avenue  of  Camp  Jackson,  recently  under  command  of  Gen- 
eral Frost,  had  the  name  of  Davis,  and  a  principal  street  of 
the  same  camp  that  of  Beauregard ;  and  that  a  body  of  men 
had  been  received  into  that  camp  by  its  commander  which 
had  been  notoriously  organized  in  the  interests  of  the  se- 
cessionists, the  men  openly  wearing  the  dress  and  badge 
distinguishing  the  army  of  the  so-called  Southern  Confed- 
eracy. It  is  also  a  notorious  fact  that  a  quantity  of  arms 
had  been  received  into  the  camp  which  were  unlawfully 
taken  from  the  United  States  arsenal  at  Baton  Rouge,  and 
surreptitiously  passed  up  the  river  in  boxes  marked  marble. 

Upon  facts  like  these,  and  having  in  view  what  occurred 
at  Liberty,  the  people  can  draw  their  own  inferences,  and  it 
cannot  be  difficult  for  any  one  to  arrive  at  a  correct  conclu- 
sion as  to  the  character  and  ultimate  purpose  of  that  en- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  365 

campment.  No  government  in  the  world  would  be  entitled 
to  respect  that  would  tolerate  for  a  moment  such  openly 
treasonable  preparations. 

It  is  but  simple  justice,  however,  that  I  should  state  the 
fact  that  there  were  many  good  and  loyal  men  in  the  camp 
who  were  in  no  manner  responsible  for  its  treasonable  char- 
acter. 

Disclaiming,  as  I  do,  all  desire  or  intention  to  interfere  in 
any  way  with  the  prerogatives  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  or 
with  the  functions  of  its  executive  or  other  authorities,  yet 
I  regard  it  as  my  plain  path  of  duty  to  express  to  the  peo- 
ple in  respectful,  but  at  the  same  time  decided  language, 
that  within  the  field  and  scope  of  my  command  and  au- 
thority the  ''supreme  law''  of  the  land  must  and  shall  be 
maintained,  and  no  subterfuges,  whether  in  the  forms  of 
legislative  acts  or  otherwise,  can  be  permitted  to  harass  or 
suppress  the  good  and  law-abiding  people  of  Missouri.  I 
shall  exert  my  authority  to  protect  their  persons  and  prop- 
erty from  violations  of  every  kind,  and  I  shall  deem  it  my 
duty  to  suppress  all  unlawful  combinations  of  men,  whether 
formed  under  pretext  of  military  organizations  or  otherwise. 

WILLIAM  S.  HARNEY. 
Brigadier  General  United  States  Army,  Comma)idi>ig. 

General  Harney's  proclamation  was  received  with  general 
satisfaction  by  all  good  people,  and  it  gave  assurance  of  the 
reign  of  peace  and  the  protection  of  life.  The  better  peo- 
ple far  more  desired  this  state  of  things  than  to  encourage 
hate,  revenge  and  bloody  strife,  and  they  saw  in  Harney  a 
firm,  resolute  and  protecting  power. 

The  subject  of  slaver\'  everywhere  lurked  in  the  thoughts 
and  discussions  of  men,  and  the  following  correspondence 
took  place  between  Colonel  T.  T.  Gantt  and  General  Har- 
ney relative  thereto  : 

Sir  :  In  common  with  thousands  who  have  perused  your 
admirable  proclamation  of  this  morning,  I  return  you  the 
thanks  of  a  citizen  of  Missouri  for  its  patriotic  tone  and 
tranquillizing  assurances. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  paper  which,  in  my  opinion,  needs 
explanation  ;  yet  I  wish  to  be  able  to  answer,  with  the  author- 


2,66  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

ity  of  your  name,  a  question  which  I  have  already  replied 
to  on  my  own  judgment.  Last  evening,  a  gentleman  of  the 
highest  respectability  and  intelligence,  from  Green  county, 
Missouri,  asked  me  whether  I  supposed  it  was  the  intention 
of  the  United  States  government  to  interfere  with  the  insti- 
tution of  negro  slavery-  in  Missouri  or  any  slave  State,  or 
impair  the  security  of  that  description  of  property.  Of 
course,  my  answer  was  most  unqualifiedly  and  almost  indig- 
nantly in  the  negative.  I  told  him  that  I  had*  no  means  oi" 
forming  an  opinion  which  was  not  open  to  ever}'  private 
citizen ;  but  that  I  felt  certain  that  the  force  of  the  United 
States  would,  if  necessary,  be  exerted  for  the  protection  of 
this,  as  well  as  any  other  kind  of  property.  Will  you  be 
good  enough  to  spare  from  your  engrossing  military  duties 
so  much  time  as  may  be  required  to  say  whether  I  answered 
correctly  ? 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  the  highest  respect,  your 
most  obedient  servant, 

THOMAS  T.  GANTT. 

General  Wm.  S.  Harney, 

Commanding  the  Military  Department 

of  the  West,  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

May  14,  1 86 1. 

Sir:  I  have  just  received  your  note  of  this  date,  inquir- 
ing whether,  in  my  opinion,  you  were  correct  in  replying  to 
a  citizen  of  southwestern  Missouri  as  to  the  purpose  of  the 
United  States  government  respecting  the  protection  of 
negro  property. 

I  must  premise  by  saying  that  I  have  no  special  instruc- 
tions from  the  War  Department.  But  I  should  as  soon 
expect  to  hear  that  the  orders  of  the  government  were 
directed  towards  the  overthrow  of  any  other  kind  of  pro- 
perty as  of  this  in  negro  slaves.  I  entertain  no  doubt 
whatever  that  you  answered  the  question  you  mention  cor- 
rectly. I  should  certainly  have  answered  it  in  the  same 
manner,  and,  I  think,  with  the  very  feelings  you  describe. 
I  am  not  a  little  astonished  that  such  a  question  could  be 
seriously  put.  Already,  since  the  commencement  of  these 
unhappy  disturbances,  slaves  have  escaped  from  their 
owners  and    sought   refuge   in  the   camps   of   the    United 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  36/ 

States  troops  from  Northern  States,  and  commanded  by  a 
Northern  General.  They  were  carefully  sent  back  to  their 
owners.  An  insurrection  of  slaves  was  reported  to  have 
taken  place  in  Maryland.  A  Northern  General  offered  to 
the  executive  of  that  State  the  aid  of  Northern  troops 
under  his  own  command,  to  suppress  it.  Incendiaries  have 
asked  of  the  President  permission  to  invade  the  Southern 
States  and  have  been  warned  that  any  attempt  to  do  this 
will  be  punished  as  a  crime.  I  repeat  it,  I  have  no  special 
means  of  knowledge  on  this  subject,  but  what  I  have  cited, 
and  my  general  acquaintance  with  the  statesman-like  views 
of  the  President  makes  me  confident  in  expressing  the 
opinion  above  given. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Commanding  Military  Department  of  the  West 

Thomas  T.  Gantt, 

St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

General  Harney  had  from  the  beginning  taken  the 
ground  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  firing  a  single  gun 
in  Missouri,  and  he  was  determined  that  none  should  be 
fired  until  the  necessity  did  exist.  His  splendid  reputation 
as  a  soldier,  his  known  firmness,  and  his  stainless  honor, 
were  sufficient  pledges  that  peace  and  order  would  be  pre- 
served. On  the  14th  he  issued  his  proclamation  an- 
nouncing his  resumption  of  the  command,  and  his  intention 
to  maintain  the  peace. 

Unfortunately  there  were  plenty  of  turbulent  spirits  to 
whom  peace  was  by  no  means  pleasing.  Either  their  occu- 
pation was  discord  or  they  hoped  to  gain  an  occupation  by 
fomenting  strife.  Then  again,  of  the  two  political  parties, 
each  furiously  exasperated,  each  was  anxious  to  be  pro- 
tected, and  yet  wished  that  protection  coupled  with  freedom 
to  harass  and  oppress  the  other. 

General  Harney  was  the  very  man  for  the  emergency. 
He  gave  protection,  indiscriminately,  to  all,  and  at  the  same 
time   curbed   the    spirit  of   license  that  was   in    danger  of 


368  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  }L\RNEY. 

becoming  prevalent.  He  had  no  reputation  as  a  fighter  to 
make ;  that  reputation  was  too  well  established  on  un- 
counted fields  to  lead  him  to  look  for  laurels  where  they 
might  rather  be  left  ungathered. 

The  intelligent  and  the  prudent  gave  him  their  support, 
when  a  cabal,  whose  plans  he  interrupted,  sought  to  move 
him  from  their  path  through  the  exercise  of  influence  at 
Washington.  Messrs.  James  E.  Yeatman  and  Hamilton 
R.  G«amble,  as  a  delegation  representing  those  citizens 
most  entitled  to  respect,  went  on  to  Washington  to 
represent  to  the  President,  and  those  by  whom  he  was 
advised,  that  General  Harney  was  proceeding  to  the  true 
solution  of  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  the  day. 

On  the  14th  of  May,  General  Harney's  celebrated  proc- 
lamation was  promulgated,  breathing  the  spirit  of  peace, 
yet  full  of  a  determination  to  conquer  a  peace  if  other 
means  proved  unavailing. 

The  capture  of  Captain  Emmet  Macdonald,  at  Camp 
Jackson,  led  to  some  legal  proceedings  in  the  United  States 
Court.  Macdonald  sought  release  from  imprisonment  by  a 
writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  action  of  General  Harney  in 
the  matter  was  prompt  and  decisive,  as  his  communications 
to  the  War  Department  show : 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  May  18,  1861. 
Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  report  that  on  the  14th  instant 
a  writ  of  "habeas  corpus"  was  served  on  me,  requiring  me 
to  bring  before  Judge  Treat,  judge  of  the  United  States 
court,  eastern  district  of  Missouri,  Captain  Emmet  Mac- 
donald, one  of  the  officers  captured  at  Camp  Jackson,  near 
this  city.  May  IQ,  by  the  United  States  forces,  under  the 
command  of  Captain  N.  Lyon,  2d  infantry.  Captain  Mac- 
donald declined  to  give  his  parole,  and  has  therefore  been 
detained  as  a  prisoner  of  war.  He  was  transferred,  on  the 
13th  instant,  to  the  custody  of  the  officer  in  command  of 
the  Illinois  troops  at  Caseyville,  Illinois,  some  ten  miles 
from  St.  Louis.      I  transmit  herewith  a  copy  of  my  answer 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  369 

to  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  case  has  been  postponed 
until  Monday  next,  when  it  will  come  up  before  the  United 
States  court  at  its  regular  session. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,  Commanding. 
Lieut.  Col.  E.  D.  Townsend, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General, 

Headquarters  of  the  Army,  Washington,  D.  C. 

St.  Louis,  May,  15,  1861. 
To  Hon.  Judge  Treat,  Judge  of  United  States   Court,  Eastern 
District  : 

In  response  to  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  yesterday  served 
on  me,  commanding  me  to  bring  before  his  honor  one 
Emmet  Macdonald,  I  have  to  say  that  Mr.  Macdonald,  the 
person  described  in  the  v/rit,  is  not  imprisoned  or  kept  in 
confinement  by  me,  nor  is  he  under  my  control  or  com- 
mand, nor  has  he  been  imprisoned  or  confined,  or  so  under 
my  control  or  command  at  or  since  the  issuing  of  this  writ. 

In  making  this  return  to  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  issued 
by  you  commanding  me  to  produce  the  body  of  Emmet 
Macdonald,  and  in  making  my  response  to  the  same,  I 
avail  myself  of  the  opportunity  thus  presented  to  express 
my  profound  regret  of  the  state  of  things  existing  in  this 
community.  I  declare  my  wish  to  sustain  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  of  Missouri; 
but  while  making  this  declaration  I  find  myself  in  such  a 
position  that  in  deciding  upon  a  particular  case  I  must  take 
what  I  am  compelled  to  regard  as  the  higher  law,  even  if 
by  so  doing  my  conduct  shall  have  the  appearance  of 
coming  in  conflict  with  the  forms  of  law.  With  respect  to 
the  transaction  which  took  place  at  Camp  Jackson,  near 
this  city,  on  the  loth  instant,  I  have  to  say  that  it  hap- 
pened prior  to  my  arrival  here,  and  before  my  assumption 
of  the  command  of  this  Department.  While  I  am  not, 
therefore,  responsible  for  the  proceedings  at  that  camp,  and 
under  ordinary  circumstances  should  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
comment  upon  them  officially,  I  am  not  disposed,  in  the 
existing  state  of  things,  to  shrink  from  the  responsibility 
34 


3/0  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  acknowledging  that  my  predecessor  in  command  saw 
in  the  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
ordering  the  dispersion  of  all  armed  rebels  hostile  to  the 
United  States,  as  described  in  the  proclamation,  a  high  and 
imperative  duty  imposed  upon  him  with  respect  to  the 
camp  in  question,  the  evidences  of  its  treasonable  purposes 
having  been,  to  his  mind,  indisputably  clear.  His  action 
in  the  premises  I  recognize,  therefore,  as  imposing  upon 
me  the  obligation  of  assuming  the  consequences  of  his  pro- 
ceedings so  far  as  to  abstain  from  pursuing  any  course 
which,  by  implication,  might  throw  a  doubt  upon  the 
sufficiency  of  his  authority.  Upon  looking  into  the  cir- 
cumstances attending  the  detention  of  Emmet  Macdonald, 
I  find  they  are  such,  if  I  had  him  in  charge,  that  I  could 
not  give  orders  that  might  set  him  at  large,  unless  some 
sufficient  evidence  should  be  furnished  that  he  was  not  of 
the  number  of  those  in  Camp  Jackson  who  gave  to  that 
camp  its  character,  by  which  it  came  under  the  class  of 
disaffected  men  hostile  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  proclamation  refer- 
red to. 

For  this  purpose  nothing  has  been  required  of  those 
persons  but  a  simple  pledge  of  parole  of  honor.  The  whole 
subject  will  be  referred  by  me  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  whose  mstructions  to  me  at  the  critical  time 
are  paramount. 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General  United  States  Army,  Commanding. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  15th  day  of 
May,  1 86 1. 

JOSHUA  W.  BOURNE. 

Notary  Public. 


Meanwhile,  General  Harney  addressed  himself  to  the 
task  of  pacification,  and  one  week  later  an  agreement, 
which  was  no  compromise  on  his  part  and  no  abatement  of 
what  the  Government  had  a  right  to  expect,  was  entered 
into  between  him  and  General  Sterling  Price,  and  formally 
published  on  the  2ist  of  May: 


the  civil  war.  37! 

St.  Louis,  M.\y  21,  1861. 

The  undersigned,  officers  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment and  of  the  Government  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  for 
the  purpose  of  removing  misapprehension  and  of  allaying 
public  excitement,  deem  it  proper  to  declare  publicly  that 
they  have  this  day  had  a  personal  interview  in  this  city,  in 
which  it  has  been  mutually  understood,  without  the  sem- 
blance of  dissent  on  either  part,  that  each  of  them  has  no 
other  than  a  common  object,  equally  interesting  and  impor- 
tant to  every  citizen  of  Missouri — tliat  of  restoring  peace 
and  good  order  to  the  people  of  the  State  in  subordination 
to  the  laws  of  the   General  and  State  Governments. 

It  being  thus  understood,  there  seems  no  reason  why 
every  citizen  should  not  confide  in  the  proper  officers  of 
the  General  and  State  Governments  to  restore  quiet,  and, 
as  among  the  best  means  of  offering  no  counter-influences, 
we  mutually  recommend  to  all  persons  to  respect  each 
others'  rights  throughout  the  State,  making  no  attempt  to 
exercise  unauthorized  powers,  as  it  is  the  determination  of 
the  proper  authorities  to  suppress  all  unlawful  proceedings 
which  can  only  disturb  the  public  peace.  General  Price 
having,  by  commission,  full  authority  over  the  militia  of  the 
State  of  Missouri,  undertakes  with  the  sanction  of  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State,  already  declared,  to  direct  the  whole 
power  of  the  State  officers  to  maintaining  order  within  the 
State  among  the  people  thereof  General  Harney  pub- 
licly declares  that  this  object  being  assured,  he  can  have 
no  occasion,  as  he  has  no  wish,  to  make  military  move- 
ments that  might  otherwise  create  excitement  and  jeal- 
ousy, which  he  most  earnestly  desires  to  avoid. 

We,  the  undersigned,  do  therefore  mutually  enjoin  upon 
the  people  of  the  State  to  attend  to  their  civil  business,  of 
whatsoever  sort  it  may  be,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  unquiet 
elements  which  have  threatened  so  seriously  to  disturb  the 
public  peace,  may  soon  subside  and  be  remembered  only 
to  be  deplored. 

W.  S.  HARNEY, 

Brigadier  General  Commanding. 
STERLING  PRICE, 

Major-General  Missouri  State  Guard, 

This  agreement  between  Harney  and  Price  gave  promise 


3/2  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

of  quiet  to  the  people,  and  did  so  for  a  time,  and  until  the 
wave  of  revolution  had  grown   beyond  local  control. 

On  the  29th  of  May  General  Harney  wrote  to  the  De- 
partment at  Washington  and  expressed  himself  highly  sat- 
isfied that  the  agreement  between  himself  and  General 
Price  was  maintaining  the  peace  of  the  State  and  building 
up  loyalty  in  every  part  thereof: 

Headquarters  Department  of  the  West, 

St.  Louis,  Missouri,  May  29,  1861. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  report  that  by  the  course  pur- 
sued in  this  State,  under  the  instructions  from  the  War 
Department,  Missouri  is  rapidly  becoming  tranquilized,  and 
I  am  convinced  that  by  pursuing  the  course  I  have  thus 
far,  which  is  fully  indicated  in  my  former  communications 
to  you,  peace  and  confidence  in  the  ability  of  the  govern- 
ment to  maintain  its  authority  will  be  fully  and  perma- 
nently restored. 

Interference  by  unauthorized  parties  as  to  the  course  I 
shall  pursue  can  alone  prevent  the  realization  of  these 
hopes ;  and  although  the  policy  they  might  inaugurate 
might  be  more  brilliant,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  and 
far  more  expensive  to  carry  out,  it  could  not  secure  the 
results  the  government  seek,  viz :  the  maintenance  of  the 
loyalty  now  fully  aroused  in  the  State,  and  her  firm  secu- 
rity in  the  Union. 

I  entertain  the  conviction  that  the  agreement  between 
myself  and  General  Price  will  be  carried  out  in  good  faith, 
but  while  entertaining  this  belief,  I  shall  watch,  carefully, 
the  movements  of  the  State  authorities.  I  have  reliable 
means  of  obtaining  information  of  their  movements,  and 
any  violation  of  their  pledge,  and  any  attempt  at  rebellion, 
will  be  promptly  met  and  put  down. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  General,   Conunanding. 

Lieutenant  Colonel  E.  D.  Townsend, 
Assistajit  Adjutant  General, 

Headquarters  of  the  Annj',  Washington,  D.  C, 

This  letter  was  sent  the  day  before  his  removal. 

Those  who  were   anxious  for  war  in  Missouri  saw  their 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  3/3 

opportunity  slipping  away  from  them.  Harmony  was  being 
restored,  and  the  parties  to  the  covenant  might  well  hope 
for  the  happiest  effects.  Yet  the  opposition  side  held  the 
winning  card,  and  were  only  waiting  for  the  time  to  make 
the  play  effective. 

In  presenting  the  history  of  these  troubled  times,  many 
letters  were  produced  from  different  parts  of  the  State 
w^iich  spoke  of  the  persecution  of  Union  men.  General 
Harney  was  convinced  that  many  of  these  letters  were 
written  in  St.  Louis,  or  inspired  by  the  cabal. 

An  incident  which  occurred  at  this  time  deepened  the 
conviction  in  General  Harney's  mind.  He  received  a  letter 
from  St.  Joseph,  stating  that  ex-Governor  Stewart  and  a 
number  of  the  most  respectable  men  in  St.  Joseph  had 
been  driven  from  their  homes,  and  that  unless  soldiers 
were  soon  sent,  they  (the  Union  men)  would  all  have  to 
leave.  General  Harney  called  upon  Colonel  Blair  with  the 
open  letter,  and  asked  him  if  he  knew  the  writer.  Blair 
merely  glanced  at  it  without  reading,  and  replied  : 

"  Oh,  yes,  he  is  perfectly  reliable.  You  can  believe  any- 
thing he  says." 

"  Then,"  replied  Harney,  "  I  will  write  immediately  to 
General  Price  and  ask  him  to  attend  to  it." 

"  Are  you  going  to  wait  to  hear  from  Price  ?  "  asked  Blair, 
quickly,  with  a  gesture  of  astonishment. 

"  Certainly,"  replied   Harney. 

Two  or  three  days  later,  Harney  received  a  copy  of  the 
St.  Joseph  News,  containing  a  letter  written  by  ex-Governor 
Stewart,  and  a  marked  paragraph  stated  in  substance  : 
"  Neither  I  nor  any  other  Union  man  has  been  driven  out 
of  St.  Joe." 

The  cry  of  "  persecution  "  was  still  kept  up,  and  one  day 
Harney  significantly  asked  Blair  how  one  man  could  suc- 
cessfully persecute  two  ?  It  was  well  known  that  the 
Union  men  throughout  the  State  were  in  a  strong  majority 
— at  the  very  least,  two  to  one. 


374  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARXEi'. 

But  the  long-standing  determination  to  get  General  Har- 
ney out  of  the  way  of  aspiring  persons,  was  still  the  source 
of  much  vigilance  and  activity'.  Colonel  F.  A.  Dick  was 
sent  by  his  enemies  to  Washington  to  secure  the  removal 
of  General  Harney,  and  his  labors  in  that  direction  are 
affirmed  by  his  own  letters,  bearing  date  and  evidence  as 
herewith  presented : 

Washington  City,  May  i6,  1861. 

Dear  Ben. — I  made  all  haste  to  get  here,  and  arrived  at 
ten  this  morning,  turning  off  at  Harrisburg,  leaving  my 
family  to  go  on  to  Philadelphia  alone.      *      ***** 

I  went  at  once  to  see  Judge  Blair,  and  told  him  of  our 
affairs.  He  took  his  hat  and  went  straight  with  me  to  see 
General  Cameron.  He  was  at  the  President's.  We  went 
there  and  found  Mr.  Lincoln,  Mr.  Bates,  Mr.  Smith  (Secre- 
tar}'  of  the  Interior;,  and  General  Cameron.  I  was  intro- 
duced, and  told  my  stor>^  straight  on.  *  *  *  *  *  * 
*  *  I  .vould  at  once  have  got  all  I  wanted,  but  for  Judge 
Bates.  He  had  seen  Yeatman  and  Hamilton  Gamble, 
they  had  told  him  their  stor}-,  and  Bates  asked  Mr.  Lincoln 
not  to  decide  upon  action  until  he  had  heard  those  gentle- 
men. While  I  was  talking.  Judge  Blair  wrote  out  a  mem- 
orandum for  an  order  removing  Harney  and  appointing 
Lyon  Brigadier-General,  and  presented  it  to  the  President 
for  his  signature.  He  would  have  signed  it  but  for  said 
request  of  Bates.  I  went  over  to  Bates  and  privately  re- 
monstrated with  him,  but  could  not  change  his  purpose. 
Lincoln  wrote  a  note  over  to  General  Scott,  asking  his 
opinion  upon  the  propositions  contained  in  Judge  Blair's 
memorandum,  and  sent  it  by  his  private  secretary,  asking 
an  immediate  answer.  Judge  Blair  and  I  then  went  to 
Cameron's  office.  I  found  him  impressed  with  the  idea 
that  Lyon  is  a  rash  man,  and  not  at  all  impressed  with  his 
real  worth  and  abilit)'.  I  found  such  an  impression  also  on 
Judge  Bates'  mind;  but  I  removed  it  from  Cameron's  mind, 
and  gave  him  a  correct  idea  of  Captain  Lyon's  ability  and 
worth. 

General  Cameron  agreed  that  he  should  have  leave  of 
absence  granted  him,  and  be  commissioned  as  a  Brigadier- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  375 

General  of  the  four  regiments  which  had  elected  him.  We 
then  left  Cameron's  office,  and  Judge  Blair  hurried  off  to 
see  General  Scott  about  the  matter  mentioned  in  the  Presi- 
dent's note.  Thus  the  matter  stands  at  the  time  of  my 
writing  this  letter.  But  for  Bates  and  General  Scott  I 
would  have  had  things  fixed  exactly  right ;  if  they  do  not 
come  nut  as  we  want  them,  you  will,  from  what  I  have  said, 
understand  them. 

But  I  believe  that  Harney  will  be  ordered  away  again. 
I  am  sorry,  sorry  enough,  that  when  he  was  here  that 
Frank  did  not  write  about  him.  Frank  does  not  write 
often  enough.  My  impressions  are  that  the  Cabinet  is 
made  up  of  too  old  men.  It  seems  to  lack  vigor,  prompt- 
itude, and  resolution.  ****** 

Captain  Lyon's  achievement  in  taking  the  camp  of  the 
traitors  has  given  great  satisfaction  in  the  East,  and 
mainly  for  that  reason,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  is  approved 
by  the  President.  Perhaps  I  do  him  injustice.  Judge 
Blair  has  turned  in,  in  earnest,  to  get  the  measures  I  came 
on  for  carried  out,  and  I  shall  stick  to  the  work  until  I 
accomplish  a  result,  and  I  am  in  strong  hopes  now  of 
achieving  the  precise  results  I  came  for. 

Yours  sincerely, 

F.  A.  DICK. 
To  Ben.  Farrar,  St.  Louis. 

Washington,  May  i6,  i86i. 
Dear  Ben. — Since  writing  you  this  noon  I  take  the  sub- 
ject up  where  that  letter  left  it  off  Judge  Blair  went  with 
me  to  the  office  of  L.  Thomas,  Adjutant-General,  where 
we  procured  the  enclosed  order  to  General  Harney.  I 
enclose  it  to  you  that  you  may  give  it  to  Frank  or  General 
Lyon,  and  have  it  delivered  to  General  Harney  at  such 
time   as  they  may  see  fit.  *  *  *          Next,  Cap- 

tain Lyon  is  appointed  Brigadier-General  of  the  Missouri 
Brigade,  but  the  commission  will  not  issue  until  to-morrow. 

I  take  the  credit  to  Frank,  and  my  efforts  here,  for  this  ; 
and  no  man  more  deserves  the  advancement  than  General 
Lyon.  It  was  a  labor  of  satisfaction  to  me.  *  *  *  * 
General  Lyon  stands  in  high  position  with  the  administra- 


376  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

tion  for  his  achievement.  It  is  felt  he  has  brought  honor 
upon  the  Government  by  it ;  and  the  howHng  of  the  trai- 
tors is  correctly  appreciated  here.  The  result  is,  the  Presi- 
dent and  Cabinet  fully  indorse  his  conduct  and  appoint  him 
a  Brigadier-General,  and  effectually  remove  Harney  out  of 
his  way.  He  must  go  ahead  now  and  win  new  laurels. 
The  capture  of  Claib  Jackson  will  be  regarded  with  great 
favor  by  the  administration.  ***** 

Yours  truly, 

F.  A.  DICK. 
Benj,  Farrar,  Esq.,  St.  Louis. 

Washington,  May  17,  1861. 

Dear  Ben. — Since  telegraphing  you  I  would  start,  I  find 
Mr.  Davisson  going  straight  to  St.  Louis,  who  carries  the 
inclosed  papers.  The  letter  to  General  Harney,  from  M. 
Blair,  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  delivered  to  him  unless  the 
command  is  taken  away  from  him.  Mr.  Davisson  is  ap- 
pointed Consul  to  Bordeaux.  He  knows  the  importance 
of  the  immediate  delivery  of  these  papers,  and  promises 
to  deliver  them  to  you  with  all  dispatch.  Judge  Blair  and 
his  father,  also  General  Cameron,  think  it  unnecessary  to 
use  the  paper  on  Harney.  General  Cameron  fully  approves 
the  discretionary  power  to  Colonel  F.  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  as  to 
displacing  Harney. 

The  papers  sent  herewith  by  Mr.  Davisson  are  : 

First — Duplicate  of  the  order  mailed  you  last  night. 

Second — Commission  for  General  Lyon  as  Brigadier- 
General. 

Tliird — Letters  from  Montgomery  Blair. 

Tell  General  Lyon  he  is  commissioned  as  one  of  the 
regular  Brigadier-Generals  through  the  war  and  not  merely 
for  three  months.  This  is  certain  ;  I  have  it  from  both 
General  Thomas  and  General  Cameron,  who  hesitated  some 
time  on  it,  but  at  last  yielded,  and  thus  issued  the  enclosed 
commission.  Yours, 

F.  A.  DICK. 

To  Ben.  Farrar,  St.  Louis. 

Ben.  Farrar,  Esq.,  or  Colonel  Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr. 

Dear  Sir — The  inclosed  dispatches  are,  first,  a  commis- 
sion for  Lyon  ;  second  a  leave  of  absence  for  Harney. 


THE   CIVIL    WAR.  37/ 

T  have  had  great  difficulty  in  accomplishing  these  results. 
The  Secretary  of  War  was  against  both.  As  to  Lyon,  the 
rule  of  granting  leave  of  absence  to  officers  of  the  army 
was  the  chief  difficulty.  As  to  Harney,  his  public  course, 
viewed  from  this  point,  seems  reasonable  enough,  and  the 
leave  of  absence  goes  to  Frank  (Blair),  to  be  delivered  to 
Harney  only,  if  in  his  judgment  it  is  now  decided  advisa- 
ble to  relieve  him  from  command.  I  think  it  possible  that, 
if  Harney  had  about  him  some  resolute,  sensible  men,  he 
would  be  all  right  all  the  time.  It  is  only  because  he  falls 
into  the  hands  of  our  opponents  that  he  is  dangerous  ;  his 
intention  being  good,  but  his  judgment  being  weak. 

This,  however,  must  be  left  to  Frank  ;  and  as  the  danger 
is  remote,  I  do  not  feel  that  it  is  right  to  keep  Harney  in 
command,  without  the  full  approbation  of  those  imme- 
diately concerned.  It  is  better  to  mortify  him  than  to 
endanger  the  lives  of  many  men,  and  the  position  of  Mis- 
souri in  the  present  conflict. 

Yours  truly,  M.  BLAIR. 

Washington,  May  17,  1861. 

On  the  17th  of  May,  1861,  Colonel  Dick  again  writes  to 
a  friend  in  St.  Louis  in  reference  to  the  removal  of*  General 
Harney.  Montgomery  Blair  also  writes  to  the  same  party 
on  the  same  subject.  In  addition  to  the  correspondence  of 
Colonol  Dick  are  submitted  two  letters  from  his  personal 
friend  and  co-laborer  for  the  removal  of  General  Harney, 
whereby  to  remove  a  bulwark  of  honor,  patriotism,  and 
national  strength,  and  open  an  easy  way  to  promote  the 
cause  of  securing  favorite  contracts  and  offices  for  personal 
friends.  This  was  one  of  the  prime  and  highest  objects 
for  which  General  Harney's  removal  was  demanded : 

Office  of  Assistant  Treasurer,  U.  S.      \ 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  May  29,  1861.  j 
Dear  Judge  : 

Our  friends  here  are  complaining,  and,  I  believe,  not 
without  reason,  that  the  Government  patronage  at  this 
point  is  all  thrown  into  the  hands  of,  and  for  the  benefit  of, 
our  enemies,  the  secessionists.     No   one  doubts   that   our 


37S  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

friends  among  the  mercantile  community  can,  and  will,  sell 
to  the  Government  all  manner  of  goods  on  terms  as  favor- 
able to  the  Government  as  any  traitor,  yet  it  seems  that  the 
disbursing  officers  hereabouts  have  a  most  decided  prefer- 
ence for  patronizing  our  enemies.  This  thing  should  not 
be  permitted.  I  am  anxious  to  see  the  Government  admin- 
istered on  the  most  economic  plan ;  but,  to  gain  that  ob- 
ject, is  it  necessary  that  our  friends  should  be  excluded, 
and  traitors  employed  to  subsist  the  army,  and  fatten  on  its 
profits?  Yes,  and  probably  subscribe  some  of  those  very 
profits  to  Jeff  Davis'  army. 

The  Government  purchases  must  always  be  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  somebody,  and  friends  rather  than  enemies 
should  be  preferred. 

Major  ]\IcKiastry,  tho  Acting  Quartermaster  at  this 
place,  should  have  a  leave  of  absence,  or  some  other  leave. 

Captain  Kelton,  who  acts  here  as  Commissary  of  Sub- 
sistence, successor  to  Major  Waggaman,  who  introduced 
him  on  resigning,  is  known  only  to  our  enemies,  on  whom 
he  is  said  to  shower  patronage,  and  for  details  I  refer  you 
to  an  article  in  "Democrat"  of  to-day.  I  learn  that  Saml. 
Simmon^  is  an  applicant  for  that  post,  made  vacant  by  the 
resignation  of  Major  Waggaman,  and  I  regard  it  as  a  mat- 
ter of  the  utmost  importance  that  he  should  be  appointed, 
and  that  it  be  done  immediately. 

Can't  you  have  General  Harney  sent  away  from  here  ? 
If  he  remains  here  much  longer  we  shall  be  compelled  a 
second  time  to  conquer  a  peace  in  Missouri.  Can't  a  divis- 
ion of  the  army  be  made  for  him,  embracing  Utah  and  the 
Indians? 

Very  truly  yours, 

BEN.  FARRAR. 
Hon.  M.  Blair,  P.  M.  G.,  Washington. 

This  letter  was  addressed  to  Montgomery  Blair  the  day 
before  the  writer,  Ben.  Farrar,  in  behalf  of  Colonel  F.  P. 
Blair,  delivered  to  General  Harney  the  order  from  the  War 
Department,  removing  him  from  the  command. 

THE  BLAIR  FAMILY. 

The  removal   of  General   Harney  was  not  made  to  give 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  379 

place  to  a  more  loyal  man,  a  better  soldier,  or  a  more 
competent  officer,  but  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the 
interests  of  ambition  by  co-operating  agencies.  As  in 
Rome  lived  the  Tarquin  family,  the  members  of  which 
were  seditious,  ambitious,  and  intriguers  for  power,  so  in 
America  lived  the  Blair  family,  full  of  ambition,  love  of 
power  and  the  spirit  of  rule  or  ruin.  Gifted  with  considera- 
ble ability,  and  constantly  thirsting  for  power,  Francis  P. 
Blair,  Sen.,  was  brought  into  public  notice  by  the  friend- 
ship and  aid  of  Henry  Clay,  whose  reputation  and  abilities 
lifted  Mr.  Blair  to  distinction.  But  this  was  only  to  be 
achieved  by  him  to  turn  and  desert  Mr.  Clay  in  the  hope 
of  winning  higher  honors  from  the  aid  of  his  enemies.  He 
sought  for  refuge  and  for  higher  honors  in  the  kitchen 
cabinet  of  General  Jackson,  where  he  lost  no  time  in  plot- 
ting for  profit  and  for  power.  Gifted  with  intense  selfish- 
ness and  ambition,  he  over-leaped  the  boundaries  of  wis- 
dom and  prudence,  and  Jackson,  seeing  the  evil  tendency 
of  Blair's  genius,  "  smote  him  hip  and  thigh  "  and  cast  him 
out. 

It  was  this  man  that  was  smitten  by  Jackson,  who  was  at 
the  bottom  of  the  intrigue  inaugurated  to  overthrow  Gen- 
eral Harney.  His  sons  had  inherited  the  traits  of  the  father, 
and  with  that  cunning  that  is  always  found  associated  with 
selfish  ambition,  Francis  P.  Blair  saw,  as  he  thought,  an 
opportunity  for  family  distinction,  and  when  General  Fre- 
mont was  placed  in  command  of  the  Department  of  the 
West,  Francis  P.  Blair,  Sen.,  wrote  from  Washington  to 
Fremont  and  presented  to  him  his  scheme  for  gaining 
political  power.  He  proposed  to  Fremont  the  mode  by 
which  he  could  retain  the  command  of  the  West,  and  he 
and  one  member  of  the  Blair  family  control  the  political 
power  of  the  West,  while  the  other  Blairs  in  Washington 
were  to  control  the  political  power  of  the  East,  and  thus 
control  the  country.  But  this  scheme  of  ambition  did  not 
win. 


380  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

When  trouble  finally  arose  between  the  Blairs  and  Gen- 
eral Fremont,  Mrs.  Fremont  called  upon  the  President  to 
see  that  her  husband  received  justice.  While  in  conversa- 
tion with  the  President,  and  as  she  warmed  with  her  sub- 
ject, Blair,  hitherto  unnoticed  in  the  room,  remarked  to 
Mrs.  P>emont  that  "  JVc"  (the  Blairs)  "  wa/te  men!''  Mrs. 
Fremont  arose  and  indignantly  replied :  "  From  the  speci- 
mens you  have  turned  out,  you  have  no  occasion  to  be 
proud  of  your  progeny ! " 

Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  was  also  a  man  of  great  ambition. 
While  he  did  much  to  preserve  the  Union,  he  sought  to  do 
more  to  promote  his  personal  ends  in  the  metropolis  of  the 
IVJississippi  Valley.  But  for  the  good  he  did  the  public 
records  will  alone  be  left  to  interpret  his  purposes  and  the 
mantle  of  charity  will  be  flung  over  his  grave. 

INIontgomery  Blair,  the  Pisistratus  of  his  race,  the  man  of 
sedition,  madness,  and  intrigue,  still  remains — a  disgrace  to 
the  high  place  he  once  held  in  President  Lincoln's  cabinet. 
Holding  a  cabinet  office,  and  stimulated  by  the  ambition 
of  an  aspiring  family,  he  brought  into  requisition  every 
means  his  office  afforded  to  remove  General  Harney.  He 
saw  St.  Louis  to  be  a  great  central  point  for  place  and 
power,  and  it  was  to  aid  in  securing  these  for  another  that 
he  sought  to  remove  the  obstructions  to  the  achievement 
of  such  an  end.  General  Harney  was  in  the  way.  In  mil- 
itary life  he  knew  no  politicians,  no  speculators.  He  was 
a  bruff,  overshadowing  and  decisive  soldier.  In  no  way 
could  he  be  used  by  politicians  seeking  place  and  power. 
Therefore  the  entire  enginery  of  a  talented  and  ambitious 
family,  who  held  high  places,  was  organized  against  Gen 
eral  Harney,  and  well  did  Mr.  Lincoln  remark  at  one  time 
that  he  could  hear  but  little  about  Missouri — it  was  in  the 
hands-of  the  Blair  family. 

There  was  a  deep-rooted  conspiracy  leveled  against  Gen- 
eral Harney.  But  time  has  vindicated  Harney  and  con- 
fronted Montgomery  Blair  with  his  own  self-imposed  wreck, 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  38 1 

which  now  haunts  him  in  his  decHning  years,  and  the  Amer- 
ican patriot  may  well  point  to  him  and  with  the  voice  of 
orator)^  tell  him  that  "ambition,  like  the  amruta  cup  of 
Indian  fable,  gives  to  the  virtuous  an  immortality  of  glory 
and  happiness,  but  to  the  corrupt  an  immortality  of  ruin, 
shame  and  misery." 

General  Scott  and  President  Lincoln  were  slow  to  yield 
to  the  conspirators  against  the  fame  and  usefulness  of  a 
warrior  who  had  long  since,  from  President  Monroe's  admin- 
istration, been  a  noted  soldier  to  the  country.  There  never 
was  any  evidence,  nor  can  there  be  found  any  to  show  that 
either  President  Lincoln  or  General  Scott  approved  of  the 
removal  of  General  Harney  from  the  command  of  the  West. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  notoriously  true,  though  not  of 
official  record,  that  President  Lincoln  said  that  the  removal 
of  General  Harney  was  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes  of  his 
administration,  and  that  General  Scott  said  that  the  re- 
moval of  General  Harney  would  cost  the  Government  lOO,- 
000  men,  and  ;$  100,000,000  of  treasure. 

General  Hitchcock,  in  a  letter  to  Judge  John  M.  Krum,  in 
which  he  reviewed  the  military  affairs  of  St.  Louis  during 
the  command  of  General  Harney,  approved  in  the  highest 
terms  of  the  course  pursued  by  General  Harney,  and  said 
that  his  removal  was  a  great  blunder. 

Special  order  number  135,  as  follows,  relieved  General 
Harney  from  the  command  of  the  West : 

L  Brigadier-General  W.  S.  Harney  is  relieved  from  com- 
mand of  the  Department  of  the  West,  and  is  granted  leave 
of  absence  until  further  orders.      By  order, 

L.  THOMAS, 

Adjutant-General . 

This  order  was  handed  to  General  Harney  on  the  30th  of 
May,  1 86 1. 

Bearing  date  of  May  18,  1861,  is  a  note  as  follows  from 
President  Lincoln  to  Hon.  F.  P.  Blair,  in  reference  to  the 
removal  of  General  Harney. 


382  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Washington,  D.  C,  May  18,  1861. 
Hon.  F.  P.  Blair: 

Mv  Dear  Sir — We  have  a  good  deal  of  anxiety  here 
about  St.  Louis.  I  understand  an  order  has  gone  from  the 
War  Department  to  you,  to  be  dehvered  or  withheld  in 
your  discretion,  reheving  General  Harney  from  his  com- 
mand. I  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  order  when  it  was 
made,  though  on  the  whole  I  thought  it  best  to  make  it ; 
but  since  then  I  have  become  more  doubtful  of  its  pro- 
priety. I  do  not  write  now  to  countermand  it,  but  to  say  I 
wish  you  would  withhold  it,  unless  in  your  judgment  the 
necessity  to  the  contrary  is  very  urgent.  There  are  several 
reasons  for  this.  We  better  have  him  a  friend  than  an 
enemy.  It  will  dissatisfy  a  good  many  who  otherwise  would 
be  quiet.  More  than  all,  we  first  relieve  him,  then  restore 
him  ;  and  now  if  we  relieve  him  again  the  public  will  ask, 
"Why  all  this  vacillation?" 

Still,  if  in  your  judgment  it  is  indispe?isable,  let  it  be  so. 

Yours  verv  truly, 
A.  LINCOLN. 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  reading  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter, 
that  the  order  for  General  Harney's  removal  was  issued 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  President,  and  reluctantly 
assented  to  by  him.  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  Harney  of  old  and 
knew  him  to  be  a  gallant  and  brave  soldier,  a  man  of  high 
learning  and  a  loyal  patriot. 

After  some  intervening  correspondence  General  Harney 
addressed  the  following  letter  to  General  L.  Thomas,  Ad- 
jutant General  of  the  Army,  at  Washington,  in  vindication 
of  his  honor  and  his  loyalty  to  the  flag  of  the  country: 

St.  Louis,  June  5,  1861. 
General:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt 
of  your  letter  of  the  27th  ultimo,  containing  instructions  to 
put  down  all  attempts  to  commit  outrages  on  loyal  citizens 
of  Missouri.  In  reply  to  that  letter  I  respectfully  refer 
you  to  my  communication  of  the  29th  ultimo,  written  and 
mailed  before  the  receipt  of  yours.  I  therein  informed  the 
tiovernmcnt   that  I   had  reliable  means  of  obtaining  infor- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  383 

mation  of  the  movements  of  the  State  authorities,  and  that 
I  should  promptly  punish  any  violation  of  agreement  and 
put  down  any  attempt  at  rebellion. 

The  many  complaints  of  individuals  by  letter,  setting 
forth  that  acts  of  oppression  were  committed  by  the  seces- 
sionists, have  received  my  careful  attention,  and  an  investi- 
gation has  proved  the  majority  of  them  to  be  without  foun- 
dation. As  an  instance  of  the  groundlessness  of  these 
mischievous  rumors,  I  cite  the  report  which  obtained  cur- 
rency, that  ex-Governor  Stewart  and  other  loyal  citizens 
had  been  driven  from  St.  Joseph,  and  the  ex-Governor 
promptl}'  published  an  unqualified  denial  that  such  outrage 
was  perpetrated,  clearly  proves  that  there  is  a  disposition 
on  the  part  of  some  parties  to  manufacture  excitement 
where  cause  does  not  exist. 

My  confidence  in  the  honor  and  integrity  of  General 
Price,  in  the  purity  of  his  motives,  and  in  his  loyalty  to  the 
Government,  remains  unimpared.  His  course  as  president 
of  the  State  convention  that  voted  by  a  large  majority 
against  submitting  an  ordinance  of  secession,  and  his  efforts 
since  that  time  to  calm  the  elements  of  discord,  have  served 
to  confirm  the  high  opinion  of  him  I  have  for  many  years 
entertained. 

My  whole  course  as  commander  of  the  Department  of 
the  West  has  been  dictated  by  a  desire  to  carry  out,  in  good 
faith,  the  instructions  of  my  government,  regardless  of  the 
clamor  of  the  conflicting  elements  surrounding  me,  and 
whose  advice  and  dictation  could  not  be  followed  without 
involving  the  State  in  blood  and  the  government  in  the  un- 
necessary expenditure  of  millions.  Under  the  course  I 
pursued  Missouri  was  secured  to  the  Union,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  government  was  only  the  more  glorious  for  being 
almost  a  bloodless  victory.  But  those  who  clamored  for 
blood  have  not  ceased  to  impugn  my  motives.  Twice, 
within  a  brief  space  of  time,  have  I  been  relieved  from  the 
command  here ;  the  second  time  in  a  manner  that  has  in- 
flicted unmerited  disgrace  upon  a  true  and  loj'al  soldier. 
During  a  long  life  dedicated  to  my  country  I  have  seen  some 
service,  and  more  than  once  I  have  held  her  honor  in  my 
hand,  and  during  that  time  my  loyalty,  I  believe,  was  never 
questioned;  and  now,  when  in  the  natural  course  of  things, 


384  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

I  shall,  before  the  lapse  of  many  years,  lay  aside  the  sword 
which  has  so  long  served  my  country,  my  countrj'men  will 
be  slow  to  believe  that  I  have  chosen  this  portion  of  my 
career  to  damn  with  treason  my  life  which  is  so  soon  to 
become  a  record  of  the  past,  and  which  I  shall  most  will- 
ingly leave  to  the  unbiased  judgment  of  posterity. 

I  trust  that  I  may  yet  be  spared  to  do  my  country  some 
further  service  that  will  testify  to  the  love  I  bear  her,  and 
that  the  vigor  of  my  arm  may  never  relax  while  there  is  a 
blow  to  be  struck  in  her  defence. 

I  respectfully  ask  to  be  assigned  to  the  command  of  the 
department  of  California,  and  I  doubt  not  the  present  com- 
mander of  that  division  is  even  now  anxious  to  serve  on 
the  Atlantic  frontier. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WILLIAM  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier  Gcticral  United  States  Ariny. 

Brevet  Brigadier  General  L.  Thomas, 

Adjutant  General  United  States  Army,  Washington,  D.  C. 

The  military  history  of  General  Harney,  in  connection 
with  the  civil  war,  is  plain  and  brief.  He  met  the  gather- 
ing storm  of  rebellion  in  the  simple  discharge  of  his  offi- 
cial duty,  and  as  the  sentinel  of  the  nation.  He  had  been 
taught  in  his  youth  by  Jackson  to  stand  by  the  flag  of  the 
Union ;  the  services  of  a  long  life  under  that  flag  had  made 
him  a  part  of  the  Government,  and  he  knew  no  other  path 
of  duty  in  which  to  walk  than  that  marked  out  by  the 
Constitution.  His  native  State,  Tennessee,  refused  by  a 
large  majority  vote  to  throw  off  the  authority  of  the  Con- 
stitution, though  afterwards  dragged  by  violence  into  the 
rebellion.  Harney  stood  at  the  helm  when  the  storm  of 
civil  strife  was  gathering,  undaunted  aid  unawed,  in  the 
gallant  discharge  of  his  duty.  Every  official  act  of  his, 
and  every  official  paper  issued  b\-  him  was  in  accordance 
with  strict  military  usage,  and  denii  n  trated  his  patriotism 
and  readiness  to  serve  his  country  in  the  hour  of  peril 
His  long  experience  in  the  army,  and  his  soldierly  qualities' 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  385 

his  decisive  acts  and  good  judgment,  all  united  in  making 
him  the  soldier  upon  whom  the  Government  c.nd  the  peo- 
ple of  the  West  could  rely  and  confide  in  the  hour  of 
deepest  trouble.  In  proof  of  this  is  submitted  the  follow- 
ing letter  from  General  McNeil,  who  held  an  important 
command  in  Missouri  at  the  breaking  out  of  troubles  in 
this  State  : 

St.  Louis,  February  27,  1878. 
L.  U.  Reavis,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir  :  Your  note  of  20th,  with  prospectus  of  the 
Life  of  Major-General  William  S.  Harney,  is  at  hand. 
You  ask  me  to  state  "  my  opinion  of  the  General  as  a  man, 
a  soldier  and  a  patriot."  The  fame  and  character  of  this 
illustrious  soldier  have  been  too  long  and  too  firmly  estab- 
lished to  require  any  support  of  mine.  His  record  is  made 
and  belongs  to  history,  and  her  muse  will  inscribe  his  name 
high  in  the  roll  of  those  who  have  clothed  the  arms  of  their 
country  with  imperishable  glory. 

What  I  can  do  in  the  interest  of  your  work  and  in  the 
interest  of  "  the  truth  of  history "  I  cheerfully  do.  It  is 
this :  to  briefly  record  my  testimony  in  regard  to  a  charge 
made  in  the  spring  of  1861  that  the  General  was  not  in 
full  and  hearty  accord  with  the  Government  in  the  support 
of  the  Union  against  the  seceding  States  and  all  aiders 
and  abettors  of  rebellion. 

Immediately  after  the  capture  of  Camp  Jackson,  and  the 
following  two  days  of  excitement,  I  was  in  command  of  the 
volunteer  garrison  of  the  city.  By  request  of  General  Har- 
ney I  called  upon  him  at  his  house  on  Fourth  street.  I 
found  there  Judge  Krum  and  Colonel  Rombauer.  The 
General  stated  that  he  had  invited  us  to  call  that  he  might 
explain  a  statement  that  had  been  made  by  the  Mayor  in  a 
public  meeting,  that  he  had  promised  to  disarm  the  "  Home 
Guard."  This  promise  he  said  had  only  been  made  in  a 
qualified  manner  in  consequence  of  the  representations  of 
many  leading  and  influential  citizens  and  old  acquaintances 
— that  the  presence  of  this  force  within  the  city  was  the 
sole  cause  of  irritation  and  disturbance.  That,  regarding 
himself  as  in  command  of  all  troops  within  his  district,  he 
had  said  to  those  people  that  if  upon  enquiry  he  should 

25 


386  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

find  their  statements  sustained  he  would  remove  these 
troops  to  Jefferson  Barracks  or  elsewhere  outside  of  the 
city.  But  receipt  of  more  recent  orders  from  Washington 
had  given  the  command  of  the  new  levies  to  General  Lyon, 
so  that  he  now  had  no  control  of  them.  But  since  he  had 
learned  more  of  these  troops  and  of  the  officers  command- 
ing them,  he  would  not  now  remove  them  if  he  could. 

Further  conversation  convinced  me  that  this  old  soldier 
and  officer  was  true  to  his  oath  of  office,  his  colors  and  his 
country,  and  as  bitter  a  foe  of  secession  and  rebellion  as  I 
was. 

During  the  interview  an  old  brother  officer  of  the  army, 
one  who  subsequently  achieved  high  command  in  the  Con- 
federate army,  and  who  laid  down  his  life  in  the  service  of 
that  cause,  came  in.  He  had  been  captured  and  paroled 
at  Camp  Jackson.  He  said  he  had  called  to  protest  against 
the  obligation  of  that  parole  and  to  say  that  he  did  not  in- 
tend to  observe  it.  Said  Harney,  "If  you  break  that  pa- 
role, sir,  and  I  capture  you  in  arms  against  the  constituted 
authority  of  the  United  States,  I'll  hang  you  in  five  min- 
utes." 

I  left  that  interview  with  a  full  conviction  of  the  loyalty 
and  devotion  to  duty  of  this  old  soldier. 

I  have  always  since  regretted  that  the  interference  of 
politicians  deprived  him  of  confidence  at  Washington  and 
remanded  to  private  life  one  whose  services  would  have 
been  invaluable  in  the  field. 

If  he  could  have  armed,  organized  and  commanded  the 
Indians  of  the  Indian  Territory,  such  was  the  power  of 
his  name  in  Arkansas  and  the  Southwest,  that  Missouri 
would,  I  am  convinced,  have  been  saved  from  pillage  and 
devastation  and  a  wedge  inserted  between  the  Confed- 
eracy and  her  best  source  of  supplies,  that  would  have 
materially  shortened  the  war. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN   McNEIL. 

This  letter  from  General  McNeil  may  well  serve  as  an 
offset  to  the  letters  of  Colonel  Pick,  whose  highest  ambi- 
tion seems  to  have  been,  with  others,  to  secure  the  removal 
of    General    Harney,   for   there  were  those   who   from    the 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  38/ 

beginning  plotted  against  his  honor  and  his  devotion  to  the 
country,  which  he  had  served  so  long.  The  record  and  the 
facts  are  plain,  and  not  to  be  misinterpreted,  that  General 
Harney's  removal  from  the  command  of  the  Department 
of  the  West,  was  the  work  of  intrigue,  stimulated  by  the 
ambition  of  designing  men.  It  was  done  in  disregard  of 
the  wishes  of  President  Lincoln  and  General  Scott,  and  no 
man  who  sought  his  removal  has  left  a  name  or  a  record  to 
compare  with  the  shining  honors  and  deeds  of  General 
Harney.  Neither  history  or  tombs  exist  to  vindicate 
those  who  plotted  against  his  fidelity  and  usefulness,  and 
for  his  overthrow,  on  the  other  hanti,  the  record  and  the 
honors  of  General  Harney  stand  unshaken. 

And  while  he  won  no  honors,  no  victories,  by  shedding 
the  blood  of  his  own  countrymen,  he  has  builded  for  him- 
self a  monument  of  true  glory  in  defending  his  country  on 
distant  battle-fields,  where  the  heroic  dead  sleep 
"On  fame's  eternal  camping  ground." 

During  the  events  preceding  our  civil  war,  and  which 
marked  its  inception.  General  Harney  was  stationed  in  Mis- 
souri. If  there  was  a  local  pride  in  the  breast  of  the  man 
who  had  felt  equally  at  home  when  stationed  in  Maine,  or 
when  fighting  in  the  everglades  of  Florida ;  who  had  borne 
his  country's  flag  with  distinction  along  every  stretch  of 
her  frontier,  from  the  head  waters  of  our  noble  river  to 
where  the  Rio  Grande  flings  its  waters  to  the  Gulf;  who 
had  stood  unflinchingly  at  the  head  of  his  dragoons  when 
menaced  by  the  combined  cavalry  of  the  Mexican  army  ; 
and  who  had  participated  in  the  final  triumphant  entry  into 
the  city  of  the  Montezumas — if  there  was  a  spot  which, 
more  than  another,  claimed  his  affections,  it  was  that  geo- 
graphical division  that  bounded  the  home  of  his  wife  and 
his  children.  He  had  been  engaged  for  nearh'  half  a  cen- 
tury in  protecting  the  feeble  outposts  of  civilization  as  they 
moved  westward  over  an  empire  that  had  been  reclaimed 
from  barbarism.     Every    instinct  of  his  nature,  of  his  pre- 


288  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

fessional  teaching,  and  of  his  long  experience,  had  taught 
him  to  look  for  enemies  from  without  and  not  from  within. 
He  had  seen  Kansas  pacified,  in  perilous  times,  by  the 
exercise  of  firmness  and  moderation.  He  was  ever  ready- 
to  fight  any  and  all  enemies  of  the  Government  whose  uni- 
form he  so  nobly  wore,  but  he  was  by  no  means  disposed 
to  first  make  enemies  for  the  satisfaction  of  fighting  them 
afterward. 

He  was  convinced  from  the  first  that  the  wrangling  of 
factions  in  Missouri,  was  caused  by  a  political  ferment  that 
would  never  develop  into  disloyalty  unless  met  with  irreso- 
lution and  a  teasing,  tyrannous  policy.  There  was  on  each 
side  of  him  a  party  not  numerous  but  active,  anxious  to 
stir  up  dissensions  and  to  precipitate  a  conflict,  for  real  or 
fancied  benefit  to  themselves.  And  now  between  the  bluff 
old  soldier  and  the  schemers  grew  up  differences  that  they 
were  far  from  being  disposed  to  reconcile.  He  believed 
their  aggressive  policy  would  be  fatal ;  they  believed,  or 
affected  to  believe,  that  his  policy  was  unwise. 

But  as  to  the  question  of  his  devotion  to  the  Union  and 
Government  of  "  these  States,"  there  was  neither  variable- 
ness nor  shadow  of  turning  on  the  part  of  General  Harney, 
as  the  following  high-toned  and  statesmanlike  letter  to 
Colonel  O' Fallon  fully  demonstrates,  and  which  will  ever 
remain  an  irrefutable  record  to  his  genius  and  honor : 

LETTER  FROM  GENERAL  HARNEY  TO  COLONEL  O'fALLON. 

Washington,  May  i,  1861. 
My  Dear  Sir: — The  report  of  my  arrest  at  Harper's 
Ferry  by  persons  assuming  to  act  under  authority  of  the 
State  of  Virginia,  has  no  doubt  reached  }'ou.  Upon  my 
arrival  at  Richmond,  under  military  escort.  Governor 
Letcher  immediately  directed  my  release,  with  assurances 
disavowing  the  act  of  his  subordinates  and  express- 
ing regret  at  their  mistake  or  abuse  of  his  authority.  The 
kind  attention  and  civility  received  from  him,  from  the 
escort  that  accompanied  me,  and  other  distinguished  citi- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  389 

zens  of  Virginia,  and  esteemed  friends  whom  I  there  met, 
compensated  for  any  personal  trouble  and  annoyance,  yet 
I  cannot  but  feel  deep  mortification  and  regret  that  our 
country  should  be  in  a  condition  to  expose  any  one  to  such 
an  incident.  It  has  furnished  occasion  for  mistake  or  mis- 
representation in  respect  to  my  views  and  sentiments,  which 
a  sense  of  duty  requires  to  be  promptly  corrected.  No 
better  mode  occurs  to  me  than  by  a  letter  addressed  to 
yourself  as  an  esteemed  personal  friend. 

It  has  been  represented  through  the  public  press  that  I 
was  a  willing  prisoner  to  the  State  of  Virginia ;  that  I 
designed  to  resign  my  commission  in  the  United  States 
army,  throw  off  my  allegiance  to  the  Federal  Government, 
and  join  the  forces  of  the  Confederate  States. 

Forty-two  years  I  have  been  in  the  military  service  of 
the  United  States,  and  have  followed,  during  all  that  time, 
but  one  flag — the  flag  of  the  Union.  I  have  seen  it  pro- 
tecting our  frontier,  and  guarding  our  coast,  from  Maine  to 
Florida.  I  have  witnessed  it  in  the  smoke  of  battle,  stained 
with  the  blood  of  gallant  men  leading  it  on  to  victory, 
planted  upon  the  strongholds  and  waving  over  the  capital 
of  a  foreign  foe.  My  eyes  have  beheld  that  flag  affording 
protection  to  our  States  and  Territories  on  the  Pacific,  and 
commanding  reverence  and  respect  from  hostile  fleets  and 
squadrons  and  from  foreign  governments,  never  exhibited 
to  any  other  banner  on  the  globe. 

Twenty  stars,  each  representing  a  State,  have  been  added 
to  that  banner  during  my  services,  and  under  its  folds  I 
have  advanced  from  the  rank  of  Lieutenant  to  that  which  I 
now  hold.  The  Government,  whose  honors  have  been 
bestowed  upon  me,  I  shall  serve  the  remainder  of  my  days. 

The  flag,  whose  glories  I  have  witnessed,  shall  never  be 
forsaken  by  me  while  I  can  strike  a  blow  in  its  defense. 
While  I  have  breath  I  shall  eve  be  ready  to  serve  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  and  be  its  faithful  and  loyal 
soldier. 

Without  condemning  or  in  any  degree  criticising  the 
course  other  persons  have  deemed  proper  to  pursue  in  the 
present  juncture,  my  hne  of  duty  is  plain  to  my  own  heart 
and  judgment.  The  course  of  events  that  has  led  to  the 
deplorable  condition  in  which  our  country  now  stands,  has 


390  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

been  watched  by  me  with  painful  interest.  Perceiving  that 
many  of  my  fellow-citizens  in  the  Southern  States  were 
discontented  with  the  Government,  and  desired  some 
change  to  protect  them  from  existing  evils,  my  feelings  have 
been  strongly  against  coercion,  and  anxious  for  some  com- 
promise or  arrangement  that  would  restore  peace  and  har- 
mony. The  provisions  of  the  Federal  Constitution  offered, 
in  my  judgment,  ample  means  of  redress  through  a  conven- 
tion of  all  the  States,  which  might  adopt  amendments  that 
would  reconcile  all  differences,  or  if  that  could  not  be  ac- 
complished, might  provide  for  peaceful  separation  in  a 
manner  becoming  friends  and  brethren.  So  long  as  this 
hope  of  peaceful  settlement  of  our  troubles  could  be  in- 
dulged, I  have  felt  it  to  be  the  wise  duty  of  the  General  Gov- 
ernment to  bear  with  patience  outrages  that  no  other  gov- 
ernment could  have  endured,  and  to  forbear  any  exertion 
of  force  until  the  last  hope  departed.  But  when  the  Con- 
federate States,  with  seven  thousand  men,  under  cover  of 
strong  fortifications  and  impregnable  batteries,  assailed  a 
starving  garrison  of  seventy  men  in  Fort  Sumpter,  com- 
pelled the  banner  of  the  United  States  to  be  lowered,  and 
boasted  of  its  dishonor  before  the  world,  the  state  of  the 
question  was  immediately  changed.  Instead  of  the  Gov- 
ernment coercing  the  States  demanding  redress  of  greiv- 
ances  by  constitutional  means,  the  case  was  presented  of 
revolutionists  waging  war  against  their  Government,  seek- 
ing its  overthrow  by  force  of  arms,  assailing  public  prop- 
erty by  overwhelming  force,  laboring  to  destroy  the  lives 
of  gallant  officers  and  soldiers,  and  dishonoring  the  na- 
tional flag.  The  question  now  before  us  is  whether  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  with  its  many  blessings 
and  past  glories,  shall  be  overthrown  by  the  military  dic- 
tatorship lately  planted  and  now  bearing  swa}'  in  the  Con- 
federate States?     My  hand  cannot  aid  that  work. 

Finding  ourselves  in  a  state  of  civil  war,  actually  exist- 
ing or  fast  approaching,  some  of  my  brethrcn-in-arms, 
citizens  of  seceding  States,  for  whom  I  have  the  highest 
personal  respect,  have  considered  it  their  duty  to  throw  up 
their  commissions  and  follow  their  States.  In  that  view  of 
duty  I  cannot  concur.  As  an  officer  of  the  army,  and  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  I  consider  my  primary  allegi- 


THE  CIVIL  WAR.  39 1 

ance  to  be  due  to  the  Federal  Government ;  and  subordinate 
to  that  is  my  allegiance  to  the  State.  This,  as  you  are 
aware,  has  been  the  concurring  opinion  of  the  most  eminent 
jurists  of  this  country.  It  was  the  judgment  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals  of  South  Carolina  in  the  case  of  Hunt,  when 
the  case  was  discussed  with  matchless  ability.  In  that  case 
the  highest  court  of  South  Carolina  deliberately  decided 
that  the  soldier's  and  citizen's  primary  duty  of  allegiance 
is  due  to  the  United  States  Government,  and  not  the  gov- 
ernment of  his  State.  Of  late  it  has  been  contended  that 
the  allegiance  due  by  a  citizen  to  the  Federal  Government 
was  dissolved  when  his  State  secedes  from  the  Union. 
Into  that  snare  many  have  fallen.  But  in  my  judgment 
there  is,  and  can  be  no  such  right  of  secession  of  a  State 
by  its  own  act.  The  Government  of  the  Union  can  only 
be  dissolved  by  the  concurrence  of  the  States  that  have 
entered  into  the  Federal  compact.  The  doctrine  of  seces- 
sion is  destructive  to  all  government,  and  leads  to  universal 
anarchy. 

But,  supposing  States  may  secede  and  destroy  the  Gov- 
ernment whenever  the  fancy  takes  those  who  are  strong 
enough  to  set  up  an  arbitrary  power  in  the  State,  Missouri, 
the  State  of  my  residence,  has  not  seceded,  and  secession 
would,  in  my  opinion,  be  her  ruin.  The  only  special  inter- 
est of  Missouri,  in  common  with  the  Confederate  States,  is 
slavery.  Her  interest  in  that  institution  is  now  protected 
by  the  Federal  Constitution.  But  if  Missouri  secedes,  that 
protection  is  gone.  Surrounded  on  three  sides  by  free 
States,  which  might  soon  become  hostile,  it  would  not  be 
long  until  a  slave  could  not  be  found  within  her  borders. 
What  interest  could  Missouri  then  have  with  the  cotton 
States,  or  a  confederacy  founded  on  slavery  or  its  exten- 
sion? The  protection  of  her  slave  property,  if  nothing  else, 
admonishes  Missouri  never  to  give  up  the  Union.  Other 
interests  of  vast  magnitude  can  only  be  preserved  by  stead- 
fast adherence  and  support  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment. All  hope  of  a  Pacific  railroad,  so  deeply  interesting 
to  St.  Louis  and  the  whole  State,  must  vanish  with  the 
Government.  Great  manufacturing  and  commercial  inter- 
ests, with  which  the  cotton  States  can  have  no  sympathy, 
must  perish   in  case  of  secession,   and   from  her   present 


392  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

proud  position  of  a  thriving  State,  rapidly  developing  every 
element  of  wealth  and  social  prosperity,  Missouri  would 
dwindle  to  a  mere  appendage  and  convenience  for  the  mil- 
itary aristocracy  established  in  the  cotton  States.  Many 
other  considerations  might  be  offered  to  show  that  seces- 
sion would  be  ruin  to  Missouri.  And  I  implore  my  fellow- 
citizens  of  that  State  not  to  be  seduced  by  designing  men 
to  become  the  instruments  of  their  mad  ambition  by  plung- 
ing the  State  into  the  vortex  of  revolution. 

Whether  governed  by  feelings  inspired  by  the  banner 
under  which  I  have  served,  or  by  my  judgment  of  my  duty 
as  a  citizen,  or  by  interests  as  a  resident  and  property- 
owner  in  Missouri,  I  feel  bound  to  stand  by  the  Union,  and, 
remaining  in  the  service,  shall  devote  my  efforts  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  the  perpetua- 
tion of  its  blessings  to  posterity. 

Yours,  truly, 

WM.  S.  HARNEY, 
Brigadier-General  U.  S.  A. 
Colonel  John  O'Fallon,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

As  to  the  loyalty  of  General  Harney,  and  his  unquestioned 
devotion  to  the  flag  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  during  the  civil  conflict,  there  can  be  no  manner  of 
doubt.  The  history  of  the  great  conflict  vindicates  his 
name,  and  he  has  no  enemy  so  base  and  envious  that  is 
able  to  point  to  a  single  act,  private  or  official,  that  con- 
tains one  particle  of  evidence  to  prove  his  want  of  patri- 
otism and  detract  from  his  high  standing  as  an  American 
soldier.  More  than  this,  if  justice  had  been  done  General 
Harney  he  would  have  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
army  when  death  relieved  General  Scott.  Harney's  rank, 
years,  experience  and  superior  military  powers  not  only 
fitted  him  to  command  the  army,  but  he  was  justly 
entitled  to  that  high  position.  But  such  is  the  high  char- 
acter, the  illustrious  deeds  and  great  name  of  General  Har- 
ney, that  no  malice  can  reach  him,  no  envy  defile  his  long 
and  eventful  record.  His  name  has  been  fixed  upon 
mountain  peaks,  upon  inland  seas,  and  upon  works  of  art, 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  393 

there  to  shine  in  imperishable  letters  of  history  and  science^ 
And  to  be  read  and  known  by  civilized  men  as  they  tread 
cycles  of  succeeding  generations  yet  to  be. 

Side  by  side  will  nature,  history  and  science  perpetuate 
his  name  with  that  of  the  great  German,  Humboldt,  and 
long  after  those  who,  stimulated  by  intrigue  and  ambition, 
plotted  his  overthrow  and  sought  to  tarnish  his  fair  name, 
shall  have  mouldered  into  dust,  time,  the  avenger  of  all 
things,  will  hold  in  its  sacred  keeping  his  undying  name^ 
engraven  upon  the  eternal  hills  and  waters  of  a  continent 
over  which  he  extended  his  labors  to  plant  empire  and 
enlarge  the  rule  of  the  Constitution. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN. 

\     /HK  discovery  of  America  revealed  to  the  elder  fam- 

I       ilies  of  man  aboriginal  races,  native  to  the  continent, 

which  have  presented  to  thought  and  science    new 

problems,  the  solution  of  which  have  called  into  requisition 

the  ablest  exponents  of  civilized   warfare,  of  government, 

and  of  religion. 

It  is  in  the  character  of  an  Indian-fighter  and  negotiator 
that  the  superior  and  most  distinctive  qualities  of  General 
Harney's  thought  and  action  shine  out  with  their  strongest 
individuality.  He  was  a  Christian  warrior,  and  he  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  habits,  modes  of  thought, 
and  secret  springs  of  action  of  our  savage  tribes.  He  had 
spent  many  years  among  them  in  intimate  relations,  and  a 
warm  sympathy  existed  between  them.  He  saw  much  in 
them  to  admire  and  respect,  and  his  moderation,  his  justice, 
and  his  soldierly  qualities,  had  presented  themselves  to  the 
Indians  so   strongly  that  they  revered  and  even  loved  him. 

Before  we  form  our  estimate  of  the  Indians  we  must  try  to 
produce  before  the  mind  the  picture  of  that  unhappy  peo- 
ple before  civilization  had  overwhelmed  and  degraded 
them.  The  Indian  of  a  generation  since,  is  quite  a  dif- 
ferent object  from  the  Indian  of  to-day. 

Here  was  a  people  whose  religion  and  whose  institutions 
had  come  down  to  them  from  a  period  so  remote  that  the 
twilight  of  creation  envelopes  them.  They  were  as  brave 
as  any  race  of  which  history  makes  record,  and  they  had  a 
genius  for  war  surpassing  that  of  any  other  aboriginal 
tribes,  and  which  made  tliem  at  least  equal  to  the  best 
instructed  civilized  soldiers.    The  Indian  was  a  self-respect- 

391 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  395 

ing  man  whose  institutions  were  founded  upon  the  abso- 
lutely sacred  dignity  of  every  individual  of  the  society, 
and  where  each  was  reverenced  for  his  achievements  alone. 

Our  North  American  Indians  have  suffered  much  from 
two  diverse  views  of  their  character,  views  widely  sepa- 
rated and  equally  erroneous.  One  of  these  was  promul- 
gated by  the  natural  Indian  hater,  who  pictured  him  as 
cruel,  rapacious,  and  unfeeling,  a  creature  of  vicious  tastes 
and  brutal  instincts.  The  other  view  was  that  of  the  im- 
practicable sentimentalist,  who  looked  upon  the  savage 
state  as  an  arcadian  existence,  where  exertion  and  repose 
were  in  their  happiest  combination,  and  where  man,  sur- 
rounded by  untrammelled  nature,  was  a  creature  of  purity 
and  truth,  brave,  courteous,  hospitable,  chivalric.  The 
philanthropist  who  witnessed  their  heroic  struggle  and  their 
unliappy  fall,  could  but  feel  sad  over  each  new  develop- 
ment in  their  history,  while  the  hardy  frontiersman  who 
felt  the  weight  of  the  vengeance  that  their  many  wrongs 
had  aroused,  looked  upon  them  as  fiends  incarnate,  and 
sought  their  extermination  without  pity  and  without 
remorse. 

Between  these  two  ideal  creations  the  North  American 
Indian  stands  out  a  well  defined,  and  by  no  means  a  repul- 
sive object,  in  the  history  of  this  country.  His  virtues  were 
many,  his  discernment  good,  his  character  stable  and 
devoid  of  petty  meannesses,  while  his  vices  were  such  as 
we  may  excuse,  for  we  can  find  for  them  a  reasonable  ex- 
planation. It  is  difficult  to  attempt  an  exposition  of  Indian 
character,  and  the  almost  continuous  struggle  of  civiliza- 
tion and  savagery  here,  for,  as  has  been  well  said  in  an  early 
official  paper,  "The  situation  of  the  Indians  and  the  opera- 
tion of  the  settlement  and  improvement  of  the  country 
upon  them  are  without  a  parallel  in  the  progress  of  human 
society."  The  advance  of  civilization  was  regarded  by  the 
Indian  not  as  a  blessing  which  was  to  furnish  him  with 
new   means  of  subsistence,  but  as  a  cause  which  was  to 


396  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

sweep  him  from  the  earth.  In  time  he  came  to  see  the 
futility  of  the  resistance  he  was  making,  and  consented  to 
treaties  in  which  he  made  large  concessions  to  the  whites. 
It  is  the  disgrace  of  our  civilization  that  upon  its  out-posts 
there  has  always  been  found  by  the  side  of  the  true  pioneer 
a  class  of  white  men  who  sought  their  own  advantage  by 
every  possible  means.  These  creatures,  who  were  at  once 
the  basest  and  most  unscrupulous  of  their  species,  were  the 
refuse  product  of  civilization,  and  they  inflamed  the  pas- 
sions of  the  Indians  to  fury. 

The  question  of  the  origin  of  the  Indians  and  their  settle- 
ment of  this  continent  has  opened  up  a  boundless  field  of 
inquiry  which  has  engaged  the  attention  of  many  scholarly 
and  able  men.  Eliot,  in  163 1,  first  opened  up  the  subject 
in  a  comprehensive  review,  and  a  quaint  writer  of  that  time, 
Cotton  IMather,  calls  them  "the  ruins  of  mankind." 

The  lapse  of  more  than  two  hundred  years  has  not  been 
able  to  stifle  the  moral  sensibilities  of  Americans  on  the 
subject,  nor  have  the  problems  of  their  origin  or  of  their 
peculiarities  been  solved,  for  large  masses  of  absolutely  new 
information  are  constantly  being  brought  forward.  It  would 
seem  that  the  name  Indian,  has  misled  many  into  a  semi- 
belief  of  their  unity  with  the  Hindoos,  and  some  points  of 
resemblance  have  been  traced  in  inscriptions  which  have 
been  noticed  among  the  Aztecs,  but  there  now  exists  no 
doubt  that  these  drawings  are  of  a  date  subsequent  to  the 
conquest  of  Mexico.  There  was  a  tradition  among  the 
South  American  tribes  of  an  universal  deluge  at  a  remote 
age,  which  swept  off  all  mankind  but  a  single  family  or 
pair,  to  whom  the  rc-pcopleing  of  the  world  is  attributed. 
Still  no  trace  of  Christianity  or  of  Mohamcdanism  is  found 
among  them,  but  their  manners  and  customs  present  some 
traits  which  denote  their  unity  with  a  more  ancient  race 
whose  opinions  and  dogmas  once  overspread  the  Oriental 
world.  Allusion  is  nmde  to  some  of  the  earliest  nations  in 
the  worship  of  the  sun  and  moon,  the  adoration  of  the  prin- 


Harney's  laki:,  okegon. 


398  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

ciple  of  fire,  and  the  dogmas  of  the  principles  of  good  and 
evil.  In  Pefu,  the  worship  of  the  sun  existed  with  a  cere- 
mony and  intensity  as  full  as  was  ever  witnessed  by  the 
Ghebins  of  Persia,  and  these  are  evidences  of  the  ancient 
prevalence  of  this  worship  throughout  America.  In 
Mexico,  where  the  doctrine  had  been  overlaid  by  horrid 
rites  and  superstitions,  it  was  still  a  fundamental  belief,  and 
they  attributed  to  the  sun  all  vitality,  power  and  intelli- 
gence. Tribes  who  passed  at  various  eras  from  the  tropi- 
cal to  the  temperate  latitudes,  and  who  abhorred  human 
sacrifices,  carried  with  them  the  milder  forms  and  cere- 
monies of  this  early  superstition  of  the   human  race. 

The  rites  of  this  worship  were  established  at  an  early 
epoch  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  They  were  found 
by  De  Soto  among  the  Quigualtangi  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  river  below  the  junction  of  the  Arkansas.  He  aimed 
vainly  to  ingratiate  himself  as  the  "child  of  the  sun."  The 
French  found  this  belief  to  exist  throughout  this  geographi- 
cal position  on  the  settlement  of  Louisiana.  It  is  believed 
that  at  recent  periods  its  sacred  fires  have  been  lit  on  the 
summits  of  the  tumuli,  which  were  once  so  widely  spread 
throughout  this  valley.  Vestiges  of  the  former  prevalence 
of  fire  worship  exist  over  immense  spaces,  and  its  rites  are 
found  to  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  aboriginal  religion 
throughout  the  geographical  area  of  the  United  States. 
In  one  of  the  Indian  traditions  the  preservation  of  a  sacred 
fire  is  carried  to  the  banks  of  Lake  Superior.  Even  over 
the  bleak  latitudes  of  New  England,  where  the  sparseness 
of  the  nation's  population  did  not  permit  large  assemblages 
to  assist  in  such  rites,  there  is  the  clearest  indication  that 
the  sun  was  worshiped  as  the  direct  symbol  and  visible 
presence  of  the  Great  Spirit.  Cotton  Mather  observes  of 
the  Massachusetts  Indians,  "  There  is  with  them  a  Sun-god 
and  a  Moon-god,  and  the  like,  and  they  cannot  conceive 
but  that  fire  must  be  a  kind  of  god,  inasmuch  as  a  spark  of 
it  will  produce  very  strange  effects."      Hymns  to  the  sun 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  399 

were  found  to  be  offered  by  a  Chippeway  prophetess  on 
Lake  Superior,  and  on  her  scroll  of  sacred  symbols  that  of 
the  moon  was  found  prominent  and  much  relied  on.  The 
origin  of  manners  and  customs,  of  rites  and  opinions,  are 
often  found  to  successfully  defy  every  other  mode  of  inves- 
tigation, than  that  to  be  derived  from  attempts  to  record 
the  outlines  of  ideas  by  rude  symbols,  and  these  latter  are 
abundant  among  the  Indians.  The  sacred  character  of 
fire  is  impressed  very  widely  and  deeply  on  Indian  man- 
ners and  customs.  Among  the  Chippeways  of  the  north, 
there  is  a  custom  to  light  a  fire  at  night  on  a  newly  made 
grave,  and  to  renew  this  fire  during  four  nights.  Fire,  in 
their  minds,  is  regarded,  in  some  manner,  as  we  should  the 
opening  of  .a  door  into  the  spiritual  world.  It  is  believed 
that  its  symbolic  light  is  thus  thrown  on  the  path  of  the 
deceased  to  guide  his  footsteps  through  its  darkling  way  to 
the  land  of  the  dead. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  rites  and  these  supersti- 
tions are  not  of  a  debasing  nature,  but  that  in  the  absence 
of  Christianity  they  are  rather  elevating  and  ennobling,  in 
leading  the  mind  to  the  contemplation  of  higher  sources  of 
power  and  reliance  upon  a  divinity  that  is  beneficent  in  its 
operations. 

The  importance  which  the  aborigines  attach  to  the  sub- 
stance of  fire,  and  its  effects  on  their  superstitious  rites  and 
customs,  has  impressed  leading  minds,  who  have  been  led 
to  turn  their  thoughts  from  the  daily  passing  customs  of 
Indian  life  to  the  more  abstract  philosophical  considerations 
on  which  those  customs  are  founded. 

The  early  missionaries  of  Europe  who  visited  the  In- 
dians, were  hurried  away  by  an  entirely  spiritual  view  of 
their  reclamation,  without  casting  a  thought  on  speculative 
subjects.  A  later  class  of  observers  have,  however,  been 
impressed  by  the  stress  which  all  Indians  lay  on  the  pro- 
duction of  a  sacred  fire  to  be  used  in  their  most  solemn 
transactions.     Mr.  Cass,  who  in   1820  visited  the  northern 


400  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Indian  tribes,  saw  in  this  ceremonious  respect  for  fire,  and 
in  contemplating  their  customs,  a  deeper  meaning.  He 
says  many  of  the  customs  which  formerly  existed  among 
the  Indian  tribes  are  now  preserved  only  in  tradition.  Of 
these  one  of  the  most  singular  was  an  institution  for  the 
preservation  of  an  eternal  fire.  All  the  rites  and  duties 
connected  with  it  are  yet  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the 
Indians,  and  it  was  not  extinguished  until  after  the  French 
arrived  upon  the  great  lakes. 

The  prevalence  of  a  similar  custom  among  the  nations  of 
the  East,  from  a  very  early  period,  is  well  known  to  all  who 
have  traced  the  history  and  progress  of  human  supersti- 
tions. And  from  them  it  found  its  way  to  Greece  and 
eventually  to  Rome.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  surprising  that  the 
element  of  fire  should  be  selected  as  the  object  of  worship 
by  nations  ignorant  of  the  true  religion  and  seeking  safety 
in  that  system  of  polytheism  which  marked  the  manners 
and  morals  of  the  most  polished  people  of  antiquity.  The 
affections  seem  to  require  something  visible  and  tangible 
for  their  support,  and  this  mysterious  agent  was  sufficiently 
powerful  in  its  effects  and  striking  in  its  operation  to  ap- 
pear as  a  direct  emanation  of  the  Deity.  But  there  was  a 
uniformity  in  the  mode  of  worship  and  in  the  principles  of 
its  observance  which  leave  no  doubt  of  the  common  origin 
of  this  belief  The  sacred  flame  was  not  only  regarded  as 
the  object  of  veneration,  but  its  preservation  was  indisso- 
lubly  connected  with  the  existence  of  the  state.  It  was  the 
visible  emblem  of  the  public  safety,  guarded  by  chosen 
ministers  secured  by  dreadful  imprecations  and  punishments 
and  made  holy  by  a  solemn  and  imposing  ritual.  The 
coincidences  which  will  be  found  between  these  observ- 
ances and  opinions,  and  the  ceremonies  and  belief  of  the 
Indians,  indicate  with  sufficient  certainty  that  their  notions 
upon  this  subject  were  brought  with  them  from  the  eastern 
hemisphere  and  were  derived  from  the  fruitful  Persian 
stock.     It  is  certain  that  the  Natchez  were  fire  worshipers, 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  4OI 

and  without  giving  full  credit  to  all  the  marvelous  tales 
related  of  this  tribe  by  the  early  French  travelers,  we  may 
yet  be  satisfied  from  many  concurring  accounts  that  they 
were  believers  in  the  efficacy  of  an  eternal  fire,  Charlevoix 
represents  most  of  the  tribes  of  Louisiana  as  having  a  per- 
petual fire  in  their  temples.  The  Natchez,  who  were  wor- 
shipers of  the  sun  and  took  their  cognomen  of  political 
power  from  that  luminary,  kept  its  symbol  perpetually 
burning.  Both  he  and  Du  Pratz  were  eye-witnesses  of  this 
rite.  This  tribe  had  a  sacred  edifice  devoted  to  it,  and  the 
nation  pretended  to  be  descendants  of  the  sun.  The  he- 
reditary dignitary  of  Ruler  or  Chief  Sun  descended  in  the 
female  line,  and  the  laws  of  intermarriage  were  so  regulated 
that  his  descendants  were  obliged  to  ally  themselves  with 
the  lower  class  of  the  tribe — a  system  by  which  all  came 
to  be  identified  and  bound  together  in  their  political  and 
religious  ties  and  honors.  The  title  of  Sun  was  equivalent 
to  that  of  Inca  or  Emperor,  and  he  exercised  a  more  des- 
potic power  than  appears  to  have  been  awarded  to  any 
other  nation  north  of  Mexico.  This  power  and  this  wor- 
ship were  kept  up  with  an  oriental  display  and  an  oriental 
use  of  the  language  of  honor  and  ceremony  long  after  the 
French  settled  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  indeed  up  to 
their  destruction  in  1729. 

These  investigations  denote  some  striking  coincidences 
with  the  earlier  forms  of  human  opinion.  They  remind 
one  more  of  the  dogmas  of  Zoroaster  than  of  the  philoso- 
phers of  later  date.  They  recall  the  idea  of  the  Author  of 
the  creation  under  the  symbol  of  the  Sun,  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  the  worship  of  an  eternal  fire.  This  opinion 
reverts  back,  not  to  the  philosophy,  rites,  and  arts  of  the 
Hindoos,  involved  in  their  subtle  systems  of  polytheism, 
but  it  carries  the  mind  to  the  original  seats  of  mankind. 

An  interest  is  thus  thrown  over  the  history  of  the  races 
which,  while  it  eludes  scrutiny,  becomes  deeper  the  more 
calmly  and  soberly   we  view  it.      Arts,  sciences,  and  reli- 


402  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

gions  have  grown  up  in  Asia  and  extended  themselves 
over  tribes  of  nations  who  were  then  nomadic  and  bar- 
barous. Europe  has  since  become  the  great  theatre  of 
human  knowledge,  letters,  and  arts ;  and  we  point  our 
telescope  toward  the  ancient  and  time-honored  shores  of 
Asia  as  if  we  could  descry  the  early  tracks  of  nations  in 
the  sand. 

One  of  our  later  writers,  one,  perhaps,  of  more  research 
than  any  other,  in  speaking  of  the  divergence  of  the  Indians 
from  their  parent  stock,  says :  "  Immense  changes  have 
supervened.  Nearly  four  centuries  have  passed  since  the 
Indian  rule  or  empire  in  America  fell.  His  ancient  ar*:s 
are  gone.  He  could  build  mounds,  form  intrenchments 
and  utensils  of  clay,  make  axes  of  copper  and  bronze, 
carve  images,  weave  nets,  make  needles,  and  other  fabrics. 
We  have  trampled  upon  him  with  the  foot  of  a  giant, 
laughed  al  his  manners  and  customs,  put  out  his  fires,  and 
pursued  him  with  the  arts  of  civilization  till  he  has  com- 
pletely lost  his  own." 

Charlevoix,  one  of  the  most  learned,  benevolent,  and 
candid  observers,  remarks  that  "  with  a  mien  and  appear- 
ance altogether  savage,  and  with  manners  and  customs 
which  favor  the  greatest  barbarity,  the  Indian  enjoys  all 
the  advantages  of  society.  At  first  view  one  would  im- 
agine them  without  form  of  government,  law  or  subordina- 
tion, and  subject  to  the  wildest  caprice.  Nevertheless  they 
very  rarely  deviate  from  certain  maxims  or  usages  founded 
on  good  sense  alone,  which  holds  the  place  of  law,  and 
supplies  in  some  sort  the  want  of  authority.  Reason  alone 
is  capable  of  retaining  them  in  a  kind  of  subordination  not 
the  less  effectual  toward  the  end  proposed  for  being  en- 
tirely voluntary.  The}'  manifest  much  stability  in  the 
engagements  they  have  solemnly  entered  upon,  particularly 
in  application  as  well  as  in  their  submission  to  what  they 
apprehend  to  be  the  appointment  of  Providence;  in  all  o( 
which  they  exhibit   a  nobleness   of  soul   and  constancy  of 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  4O3 

mind   at  which  we  rarely   arrive   with  our  philosophy  and 
religion." 

When  the  Indian  is  compared  with  civilized  man,  we 
have  an  opportunity  of  noting  the  wide  difference  of  two 
forms  of  culture.  We  absorb  our  knowledge  and  view  of. 
opinions  in  most  part  from  what  is  written  by  others,  and  so 
absorb  into  ourselves  a  portion  of  the  thought  and  feel- 
ing of  others.  The  Indian,  taciturn,  solitary  and  reflecting, 
expands  from  within  himself  and  evolves  opinions  that 
sometimes  amuse  us  and  sometimes  stagger  our  philosophy. 
Because  he  is  furious  in  his  resentments  in  a  state  of  war, 
or  fierce  personal  feud,  or  cruel  and  unsparing  in  his  wrath, 
it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  this  is  his  natural  or  ordinary 
mood.  But,  it  may  be  asked,  is  this  unscrupulous  fury, 
under  such  circumstances,  greater  than  that  of  a  brutal 
commander  who  puts  a  whole  garrison  to  the  sword,  merely 
because  they  defended  a  work  with  heroic  bravery  ?  Are  his 
endurance  at  the  stake,  and  his  shouts  and  songs  of  triumph 
under  torment  more  strange  than  the  firmness  which  has 
sustained  martyrs  dying  for  a  principle  ? 

His  language  is  forcible,  but  his  vocabulary  is  small  and 
not  flexible,  and  ill-adapted  to  purposes  of  lyric  poetry. 
Yet  as  an  orator  the  striking  originality  of  his  expressions 
and  his  directness  charm  us  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
best  of  the  Athenian  models.  Our  earliest  notices  of  him 
denote  a  man  of  excellent  powers  in  oratory.  Nothing 
that  actually  exists  in  his  life  and  trainings  would  seem 
indeed  to  justify  so  much  vigor  of  thought  and  propriety 
of  expression.  But  it  is  not  recollected  in  this  view  that 
he  has  been  brought  up  in  the  school  of  nature,  where  his 
mind  from  childhood  has  been  impressed  by  images  which 
are  bold,  vivid,  and  fresh.  His  books,  truly,  have  been  the 
heavens,  with  all  their  bright  phenomena,  and  when  he 
takes  the  oratorical  attitude,  and  employs  figures  to  enable 
him  to  express  his  meaning  within  the  compass  of  a  limited 
vocabulary,  it  is  from  this  store-house  of  his  thoughts  that 


404  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

the  selection  is  made.  These  illustrations  are  striking  and 
pertinent,  because  they  are  simple  and  true.  Nor  is  he 
deficient  when  he  comes  to  discourse  of  things  of  the  heart 
and  of  its  affections.  Stoical  and  imperturbable  he  is 
.indeed,  in  a  manner,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  allude  to  the 
names  of  Garraugula,  of  Logan,  Sagoyawatha,  or  Red 
Jacket,  of  Caunassatigo,  Pontiac,  Skenandoah,  of  the  once 
powerful  Passaconaway,  and  a  line  of  renowned  aboriginal 
speakers,  to  sustain  the  conclusion  that  they  have  produced 
men  of  intellectual,  energetic  and  eloquent  minds.  If  the 
physiologist  does  not  perceive  why  the  Indian  does  not 
develop  mind,  while  he  aims  to  preserve  ideas  of  the 
strength  and  skill  of  his  distinguished  men  by  muemonic 
appeals  to  a  rude  pictography  ;  while  he  invents  fictions  to 
amuse  his  hearers  ;  while  he  is  eloquent  in  council  and  in 
debate,  when  he  has  great  things  at  stake  ;  if  his  faculties 
can  be  stimulated  to  understand  the  mental  operations  of 
arithmetic,  and  to  comprehend  the  elements  of  knowledge, 
it  is  not  perceived  why  the  aboriginal  man  is  deficient  in 
his  natural  intellectual  powers.  The  Gospel  mystery  of  the 
union  of  God  and  man  has  been  dissolved  before  his  eyes 
by  DeSmet,  and  Eliot,  and  Brainerd,  and  a  host  of  self- 
sacrificing  divines,  and  he  has  been  brought  to  feel  his 
deficiencies  in  presenting  himself  in  his  own  strength  before 
his  Creator.  He  has  learned  the  mystery  of  letters,  and 
one,  the  Cadmus  of  his  age,  invented  for  his  people  an 
alphabet  of  the  simple  sounds  of  his  language,  more  flexi- 
ble and  easier  to  learn  than  the  Romaic  characters  which 
have  been  bent  to  fit  our  own  composite  tongue. 

The  leaders  in  the  advancement  of  civilization  over  the 
domain  of  the  Indians,  have,  of  necessity,  taken  on  a  more 
or  less  manlike  character.  The  garb  of  either  the  priest 
or  the  soldier  was  necessary  to  command  their  respect  and 
obedience,  and  it  is  in  this  connection  interesting  to  follow 
the  path  of  DeSoto,  LaSalle,  and  Marquette,  who  traced 
paths  in  the  wilderness   along    which  General   Harney,  in 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  4O5 

the  first  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  to  follow  with 
an  enthusiasm  equal  to  theirs,  and  with  an  ardor  and  intre- 
pidity that  makes  him  the  crusader  of  his  age.  Gayarre, 
the  historian  of  Louisiana,  draws  an  ideal  picture  of  De- 
Soto's  career : 

"On  the  31st  of  May,  1839,  the  bay  of  Santa  Spirit©  in 
Florida  presented  a  curious  spectacle.  Eleven  vessels  of 
quaint  shape,  bearing  the  broad  banner  of  Spain,  were 
moved  close  to  the  shore.  One  thousand  men  of  infantry 
and  three  hundred  and  fifty  of  cavalry,  fully  equipped, 
were  landed  in  proud  array  under  the  command  of  Her- 
nando de  Soto,  one  of  the  most  illustrious  companions  of 
Pizarro  in  the  conquest  of  Peru,  and  reputed  one  of  the 
"best  lances  of  Spain.  '  When  he  led  the  van  of  battle,  so 
powerful  was  his  charge, '  says  the  old  chronicler  of  his 
exploits,  '  so  broad  was  the  passage  which  he  carved  out  in 
the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  that  ten  of  his  men-at-arms  could 
with  ea^e  follow  him  abreast,'  He  had  acquired  enormous 
wealth  in  Peru,  and  might  have  rested  satisfied  a  knight  of 
renown  in  the  government  of  St.  Jago  de  Cuba,  in  the 
-enjoyment  of  youth  and  of  power,  basking  in  the  smiles  of 
his  beautiful  wife,  Isabella  de  Bobadilla.  But  his  adven- 
turous mind  scorned  such  inglorious  repose,  and  now  he 
stands  erect  and  full  of  pride  on  the  sandy  shores  of 
Florida,  whither  he  comes  with  feudal  power,  by  leave  of  the 
King,  to  establish  nothing  less  than  a  marquisate  ninety-five 
miles  long  by  forty-five  miles  wide,  and  there  to  rule  supreme 
a  governor  for  life  of  all  the  territory  that  he  can  sub- 
jugate. Not  unmindful  he,  the  Christian  knight,  of  his  duty 
toward  the  imperishable  souls  of  his  future  vassals,  for  twen- 
ty-two ecclesiastics  accompany  him  to  preach  the  Word 
of  God.  Among  his  followers  are  gentlemen  of  the  best 
blood  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  who,  by  combined  skill  and 
bravery,  had  won  the  praises  of  Gonsaloo  de  Condova, 
yclept  '  the  great  captain,'  Vasconcellas  de  Silva,  of 
Portugal,    who    for    birth    and    courage  knew  no  superior, 


406  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Nuno  Toboa,  a  knight  above  fear  and  reproach,  Murcaso 
de  Alvarado,  who  in  that  small  host  of  heroes  ranked  in 
their  estimation  next  to  De  Soto  himself.  Let  the  imagina- 
tion trace  the  glorious  pageantry  as  it  sweeps  by  through 
the  long  vistas  of  those  pine  woods.  How  nobly  they  bore 
themselves,  those  bronzed  sons  of  Spain  clad  in  their  reful- 
gent armour  !  How  fleet  they  move — those  Andalusian 
chargers  with  arched  necks,  dilated  nostrils.  But  the  whole 
train  suddenly  halts  in  that  verdant  valley,  by  that  bubbling 
stream,  shaded  by  venerable  oaks  with  gray  moss  hanging 
from  their  branches,  in  imitation  of  the  whitening  beard  of 
age.  Let  the  whole  encampment  rise  distinct  upon  the 
mind,  De  Soto  seated  apart  with  his  peers  in  rank  if  not  in 
command,  and  intent  upon  developing  to  them  his  plans  of 
conquest,  while  the  dusky  faces  of  Indian  boys  and  women 
in  the  background  expressed  their  wild  astonishment. 
None  of  the  warriors  of  that  race  were  to  be  seen.  They 
are  reported  to  have  been  absent  on  a  distant  hunting 
expedition,  but  some  of  them  may  at  times  have  peered 
through  the  neighboring  thickets  with  fierce  glance  and 
martial  eye  sparkling  with  the  suppressed  fury  of  antici- 
pated revenge.  What  incredible  difficulties  are  overcome 
by  the  advancing  host  !  How  heroic  is  the  resistance  of  the 
IVIobilians  and  of  the  Alabamians!  With  what  headlong 
fury  those  denizens  of  the  forest  rushed  upon  the  iron-clad 
warriors  and  dared  the  thunders  of  those  whom  they  took 
to  be  the  children  of  the  sun  !  How  splendidly  described 
is  the  seige  of  Mobile,  where  women  fought  like  men  and 
wrapped  themselves  up  in  the  flames  of  their  destroyed 
city,  rather  than  surrender  to  their  invaders  !  But  the  con- 
quering herd  must  beware,  for  he  is  soon  to  encamp  on 
the  territory  of  the  Chickasaws,  the  most  ferocious  of  the 
Indian  tribes,  and  it  was  lu  :ky  that  De  Soto  was  as  prudent 
as  he  was  brave,  and  si  pt  'Equally  prepared  for  an  advance 
or  an  attack.  In  the  ckad  of  a  winter's  night,  when  the 
cold  north  wind  in  the  month  of  January,  1 541,  was  howl- 


THE  AMERICAN   INDIAN.  4O7 

ing  through  the  leafless  trees,  a  simultaneous  howling  was 
heard,  more  hideous  than  the  voice  of  the  tempest.  The 
Indians  rushed  impetuously  with  fire  brands,  and  the 
thatched  roofs  which  sheltered  the  Spaniards  were  soon  on 
fire,  threatening  them  with  immediate  destruction.  The 
horses  rear  and  plunge  in  wild  affright,  and  break  loose  from 
their  fastenings.  The  naked  yet  undaunted  Spaniards 
struggle  against  the  devouring  element  and  the  unsparing 
foe.  The  desperate  deeds  of  valor  executed  by  De  Soto 
and  his  companions,  the  deep-toned  shouts  of  Saint  Jago 
and  Spain  to  the  rescue,  the  demon-like  shrieks  of  the  red 
warriors,  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Indians,  the  hot  pursuit 
by  the  late  occupants  of  the  flaming  village,  form  a  picture 
highly  exciting  to  the  imagination,  and  cold  indeed  must  he 
be  who  does  not  take  delight  in  the  strange  contrast  of  the 
heroic  warfare  of  chivalry-  on  the  one  side  and  of  the  untu- 
tored courage  of  man  in  a  savage  state  on  the  other. 

"  At  last  De  Soto  stands  upon  the  banks  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, near  the  spot  where  now  stands  the  Egyptian-named 
city  of  Memphis.  He  crosses  the  mighty  river  and  onward 
he  goes  up  to  White  River,  while  roaming  over  the  territory 
of  Arkansas.  Meeting  with  alternate  hospitality  and  hostil- 
ity on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  he  arrives  at  the  mouth  of  Red 
River,  within  the  present  limits  of  the  State  of  Louisiana. 
There  he  was  fated  to  close  his  adventurous  career.  He 
who  in  Spain  was  cheered  by  beauty's  glance,  by  the  song 
of  minstrel  when  he  sped  to  the  contest  with  adversaries 
worthy  of  his  prowess — with  the  noble  and  chivalric 
Maons;  he  who  had  reveled  in  the  halls  of  the  imperial 
Incas  of  Peru,  and  who  was  said  to  have  amassed  princely 
wealth  ;  he,  the  flower  of  European  courts,  had  been  wildly 
roaming  over  an  immense  territory  where  he  had  discov- 
ered but  half-naked  savages  dwelling  in  miserable  huts, 
ignobly  repulsive  when  compared  with  Castile's  stately 
domes,  with  Grenada's  fantastic  palaces,  and  with  Peru's 
imperial   dwellings,   massive    with    gold.     His   wealth  was 


408  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

gone.  Two-thirds  of  his  brave  companions  were  dead. 
What  account  of  them  would  he  render  to  their  noble  fam- 
ilies, and  he  bankrupt  in  fame  and  in  fortune?  How  would 
he  withstand  the  gibe  of  envy?  Thought,  that  inward 
scourge  of  life,  racked  his  brain,  and  his  heart  was  seared 
with  deep  anguish.  A  slow  fever  wasted  his  powerful 
frame,  and  he  sank  on  his  couch  never  to  rise  again.  The 
Spaniards  closed  around  him  and  alternately  looked  with 
despair  on  their  dying  chieftain  and  at  the  ominous  hue  of 
the  bloody  river  known  at  this  day  under  the  name  of  Red 
River.  But  he  was  not  the  man  to  let  the  wild  havoc  in 
the  soul  betray  itself  in  the  outward  mien.  It  was  not  in 
him  to  utter  to  the  vulgar  herd  one  word  of  wail,  but  with 
smiling  lips  and  stern  brow  he  addressed  his  companions 
and  summoned  them  one  by  one  to  swear  allegiance  in  his 
hands  to  Murcaso  de  Alvarado,  whom  he  designated  as 
his  successor.  'Union  and  perseverance,  my  friends,'  he 
said.  '  So  long  as  the  breath  of  life  animates  your  bodies, 
do  not  falter  in  the  enterprise  you  have  undertaken. 
Spain  expects  a  richer  harvest  and  more  ample  domains 
for  her,'  " 

The  same  historian,  Gayarre,  paints  also  the  picture  of 
La  Salle's  enterprise  as  follows  :  "  One  hundred  and  thirty 
years  had  passed  away  since  the  apparitio.n  of  De  Soto, 
without  any  further  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  white  race 
to  enter  into  that  fair  region,  when  on  the  7th  of  July, 
1673,  a  small  band  of  Canadians  reached  the  Mississippi, 
which  they  had  come  to  seek  from  the  distant  city  of  Que- 
bec. That  band  had  two  leaders — Father  Marquette,  a 
monk,  and  Joliet,  a  merchant — the  prototypes  of  two  groat 
sources  of  power,  religion  and  commerce,  which  in  the 
course  of  time  were  destined  to  exercise  such  an  influence 
on  the  civilization  of  the  Western  territory  traversed  by 
the  mighty  river,  which  they  had  discovered.  They  could 
not  be  ordinary  men,  these  adventurers,  who  in  those  days 
undertook  to   expose  themselves  to  the  fatigues  and  perils 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  4O9 

of  a  journey  through  unknown  solitudes  from  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  the  Mississippi. 

"  That  humble  monkish  gown  of  Father  Marquette  con- 
cealed'a  hero's  heart,  and  in  the  merchant's  breast  there 
dwelt  a  soul  that  would  have  degraded  no  belted  knight. 

"  Joliet  and  Father  Marquette  floated  down  the  river  with- 
out much  impediment  as  far  as  the  Arkansas.  There  they 
had  received  sufficient  evidence  that  the  Mississippi  dis- 
charged itself  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  they  retraced 
their  way  and  returned  to  Canada.  But  in  that  frail  bark, 
drifting  down  the  current  of  the  Mississippi,  sat  the  hard- 
plodding  merchant,  with  the  deep  wrinkles  of  thought  and 
forecast  on  his  brow,  planning  deep  schemes  of  trade  with 
unknown  nations,  and  surveying  with  curious  eye  that 
boundless  territory  which  seemed  as  some  long  stretch  in 
commensurate  proportion  with  the  infiniteness  of  space. 
In  that  frail  bark,  where  mused  over  his  breviary  that 
grey  haired  monk,  leaning  on  that  long  staff,  surmounted 
with  the  silver  cross  of  Christ,  and  computing  the  souls 
that  he  had  saved,  and  the  souls  to  be  saved  from  idolatry, 
is  there  not  as  much  poetry  as  in  the  famed  vessel  of  Argus 
sailing  in  quest  of  the  golden  fleece  ?  Were  not  their 
hearts  as  brave  as  those  of  the  Greek  adventurers  ?  Were 
not  their  dangers  as  great,  and  was  not  the  object  they  had 
in  view  much  superior?" 

Thus,  on  the  first  acquaintance  of  our  European  fathers 
with  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  there  was  an  in- 
stinct that  thrilled  them  with  the  thought  that  it  was  there 
that  the  seeds  of  empire  and  greatness  were  sown.  Were 
they  not  right  in  those  deviations  that  pushed  them  on- 
ward to  that  favored  spot  through  so  many  dangers  ? 
Greatness  and  empire  were  there,  and  therefore  all  the 
elements  of  poetry. 

In  1673,  La  Salle,  with  the  genius  and  daring  which 
seemed  to  grow  brighter  as  years  passed  away,  landed  in 
Canada  after  forming  a  gigantic  plan  of  connecting  the  St. 


410  LII-I-:  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Lawrence  with  the  Mississippi,  by  a  chain  of  forts.  He 
returned  to  France,  and  with  that  assurance  which  genius 
imparts,  would  have  forced  his  way  to  the  foot  of  the  throne 
and  appealed  to  majesty  itself,  but  he  first  fired  the  "Prince 
Conti  with  his  own  generous  and  contagious  enthusiasm, 
and  through  him  obtained  from  the  king  immense  conces- 
sions of  land,  and  all  the  powers  and  privileges  required 
for  trading  with  the  Indians,  and  for  carrying  on  his  medi- 
tated plans  of  discovery.  He  was  also  ennobled  by  letters 
patent. 

Again  on  the  15th  of  September,  1678,  proud  and  erect, 
with  the  consciousness  of  success,  he  stood  within  the  walls 
of  Quebec,  and  was  stimulated  by  the  cheers  of  the  whole 
population.  He  immediately  entered  upon  the  execution 
of  his  daring  projects.  Four  years  after  he  was  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and  in  the  name  (as  appears  from 
the  notarial  act  still  extant)  of  the  most  puissant,  most 
high,  and  most  victorious  King  Louis  the  Great,  King  of 
France,  took  possession  of  all  the  country  which  he  had 
discovered. 

Two  years  later  he  returned  to  France  and  found  himself 
famous,  and  the  poor  boy,  the  ignoble  by  birth,  was  pre- 
sented to  Louis  XIV,  amid  all  the  splendor  of  his  court. 
That  Jupiter  among  the  kings  of  earth  had  a  smile  to  be- 
stow upon  the  humble  subject  who  came  to  deposit  at  the 
foot  of  the  throne  the  title  deeds  of  such  broad  domains. 

La  Salle,  again  in  pursuit  of  his  audacious  design,  sailed 
from  France  with  four  vessels  to  find  himself  abandoned 
on  the  shores  of  the  baj^  of  St.  Bernard,  in  1685,  and  was 
reduced  to  shift  for  himself  with  very  limited  resources. 
Then  follows  a  period  of  three  other  years  of  great  suffer- 
ing and  of  bloody  and  incessant  wanderings  through  the 
territory  of  the  present  State  of  Texas.  Here,  after  a  long 
series  of  adventures,  he  was  basely  murdered  by  his  French 
companions,  and  revenged  by  his  body  servant,  an  Eng- 
lishman  by   birth.       He   died   somewhere   about   the   spot 


THE  AMERICAN   INDIAN.  411 

where  now  stands  the  town  of  Washington,  which  owes  its 
foundation  to  some  of  that  race  to  whom  belong  his 
avenger,  and  the  flag  of  the  United  States  now  proudly 
waves  where  the  first  herald  of  civilization  consecrated 
with  his  blood  the  future  land  of  liberty. 

It  is  only  by  comparing  the  views  of  contemporaries  that 
we  can  judge  of  the  surroundings  of  prominent  men,  and 
the  lights  they  had  to  guide  them  and  the  difficulties  they 
encountered. 

Fifty  years  after  La  Salle,  Lamothe  Cardillac,  a  witty  and 
discerning  official  of  the  French  court  in  Louisiana,  pro- 
tested against  any  effort  at  commerce  with  the  northern 
tributaries  of  the  Mississippi.  On  receiving  positive  orders 
to  assist  the  agents  of  Crozat  in  establishing  trading  posts 
on  the  Wabash  and  on  the  Illinois,  he  wrote,  "  I  have  seen 
Crozat's  instructions  to  his  agents  and  thought  them  issued 
from  a  lunatic  asylum,  and  there  appeared  to  me  to  be  no 
more  sense  in  them  than  in  the  apocalypse.  It  is  expected 
that  for  any  commercial  or  profitable  purpose,  boats  will 
never  be  able  to  run  up  the  Mississippi  into  the  Wabash, 
the  Missouri,  or  the  Red  rivers.  One  might  as  well  try  to 
bite  a  slice  off  the  moon."  Cardillac  was  one  of  the  most 
penetrating  men  of  his  age,  and  yet  he  saw  no  further  than 
this.  So  at  every  stage  of  the  progress  of  civilization  on  this 
continent  there  has  been  a  vigorous  opposition  to  advance, 
and  now  let  us  withhold  no  meed  of  the  praise  due  to  those 
who  made  that  progress  possible,  and  who  pushed  on  the 
car  of  progress  itself. 

Again  Cardillac  writes  to  the  ministry :  "  Not  only  are 
these  rivers  as  rapid  as  the  Rhone,  but  in  their  crooked 
course  they  imitate  to  perfection  a  snake's  undulations. 
Hence,  for  instance,  on  every  turn  of  the  Mississippi  traders 
would  be  obliged  to  wait  for  a  change  of  wind,  if  wind 
could  be  had.  For  this  river  is  so  lined  up  with  thick 
woods  that  very  little  wind  has  access  to  its  bed." 

It  was  not  until   1852  that  the  Red  River  was  ever  fully 


^12  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

explored,  and  it  was  then  brought  about  by  Jefferson 
Davis,  then  Secretary  of  War.  The  officers  detailed  for 
the  service  were  Randolph  B.  Marcy,  Captain  of  the  5th 
infantry,  assisted  by  George  B.  INIcClellan,  brevet  Captain 
U.  S.  Engineers. 

In  considering  the  influence  of  the  Indian  character  in 
connection  with  the  military  operations  upon  this  continent, 
we  must  constantly  remember  that  we  are  separated  by 
but  a  narrow  line  from  the  Indian  tribes  that  have  virtually 
disappeared,  and  also  that  when  General  Harney  came 
upon  the  field  the  whole  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  many  of  what  are  now  our  fairest  States,  were  virtually 
under  savage  domination. 

Among  the  first  of  General  Harney's  labors  was  a  mili- 
tary service  in  Florida,  where  he  served  on  the  staff  of  his 
friend  and  patron.  General  Jackson.  To  show  the  spirit  that 
animated  those  Indians,  and  their  ferocity,  mingled  with 
magnanimity  and  lucid  reasoning,  there  is  no  finer  example 
of  Indian  thought  and  Indian  eloquence  than  the  speech  of 
Weatherford  before  General  Jackson,  on  the  question  of  the 
removal  of  the  tribes.  Weatherford  had  been  the  leader  in 
what  is  called  the  "  atrocious  butchery  at  Fort  IMims."  A 
number  of  the  chiefs  of  the  hostile  party  sought  the  pres- 
ence of  Jackson,  and  offered  peace  upon  his  own  terms. 
Jackson  demanded  as  a  preliminary  to  negotiations  the  sur- 
render of  Weatherford.  A  few  days  after  an  Indian  pre- 
sented himself  at  the  camp,  and  desired  to  be  conducted  to 
the  presence  of  the  General,  to  whom  he  announced  him- 
self as   Weatherford. 

The  American  commander  expressed  his  astonishment 
that  one  whose  hands  were  stained  with  the  inhuman  mur- 
der of  captives  should  dare  to  appear  in  his  presence, 
knowing  as  he  must  that  his  arrest  had  been  ordered  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  him  to  punishment.  The  un- 
daunted chieftain  replied:  ''lam  in  your  power;  do  with 
me  as  you  please ;  I  am  a  warrior,  and  I  have  done  the 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  4I3. 

white  people  all  the  harm  I  could.  I  have  fought  them, 
and  fought  them  bravely.  If  I  had  any  warriors  left  I 
would  still  fight  and  contend  to  the  last.  But  I  have  none. 
My  people  are  gone,  and  now  I  can  only  mourn  over  the 
misfortunes  of  my  nation." 

Struck  with  a  magnanimity  so  near  akin  to  his  own  high 
spirit,  the  General  explained  to  the  visitor  the  terms  upon 
which  his  people  might  have  peace,  adding  that  he  .should 
take  no  advantage  of  his  voluntary  surrender,  and  that  he 
was  now  at  liberty  to  remain  and  be  protected,  or  retire  and 
re-unite  himself  with  the  war  party,  but  that  if  taken  his 
life  should  pay  the  forfeit  of  his  crimes. 

The   undismayed    savage,  retaining    the    self-possession 
which  distinguishes  his  race,  replied :  "  I  am  willing  to  be 
addressed  in  such  language  now.     There  was  a  time  when 
I  could  have  answered  you.     I  then  had  a  choice,  but  now 
I  have  none.      Even  hope  has  ended.     Once. I  could  lead 
my  warriors   to  battle,  but  I   cannot  call  the  dead  to  life. 
My  warriors   can  no   longer  hear  my  voice.     Their  bones- 
are   at    Talludega,    Tallaschatchie,    Emuckfaw,  and  Toho- 
peka.      I  have  not  surrendered  myself  without  reflection. 
While  there  was  a  chance  of  success    I  never  left  my  post 
nor  asked  for  peace,  but    my   people   are  gone,  and    I   now 
ask  for  peace  for  my  nation  and  for  myself     I  look  back 
with   sorrow   upon   the   miseries   and  misfortunes  brought 
upon  my  country,  and  wish,  to  avoid  still  greater  calamities. 
Our  best  warriors  are  slain,  our  cattle  and  grain  destroyed/ 
and  our  women  and   children   are  destitute  of  provisions. 
If  I   had  been  left  to   contend   with  the   Georgia  army,  I 
would   have  raised  my  corn  on  one  bank  of  the  river  and 
fought  them  on  the  other,  but  your  people  have  destroyed 
my   nation.     You   are  a  brave  man,  I  rely  on   your  gener- 
osity.    You  will  exact  no  terms   from  a  conquered    people 
but  such  as  they  should  accept.     Whatever  they  may  be, 
it  would  be  madness  in  us  to  oppose  them.      If  any  oppose 
them  you  will  find  me  stern  in  enforcing  obedience.    Those 


414  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

who  would  still  hold  out  can  be  influenced  only  by  revenge, 
and  to  this  they  must  not,  and  shall  not,  sacrifice  the  last 
remnants  of  their  nation.  You  have  told  us  where  we  must 
go  and  be  safe.  This  is  a  good  talk,  and  they  ought  to 
listen  to  it,  and  they  shall  listen  to  it." 

Where  can  we  find  an  instance  of  a  Christian  soldier 
taking  a  more  generous  part  or  placing  himself  in  a  more 
self-sacrificing  position  ?  Neither  does  the  savage  lose 
any  of  his  dignity  in  his  utter  defeat.  It  will  not  do  to 
treat  such  an  individual  either  as  a  child  or  as  a  man  defi- 
cient in  clearness  of  judgment,  and  we  see  how  intricate 
are  the  questions  that  presented  themselves  to  the  soldier 
of  a  generation  ago. 

Though  their  language  was  ill  adapted  to  rhythmical 
poetry,  their  ideas  were  eminently  poetical,  and  the  nomen- 
clature which  they  have  left  upon  our  mountains,  our 
majestic  rivers,  and  our  geographical  sub-divisions  of  the 
country,  are  beautiful  and  expressive  to  a  degree  that  no 
other  nation  can  boast.  An  American  female  poet  has 
given  this  idea  a  very  happy  expression  in  the  following 
lines ; 

"  I  see  that  all  have  passed  away, 
The  noble  race  and  brave, 
That  their  light  canoes  have  vanished 
From  oiT  the  crested  wave. 
That  'mid  the  forests  where  they  roamed, 
There  rings  no  hunter's  shout, 
But  their  name  is  on  your  waters, 
Ye  may  not  wash  it  out. 

**  I  see  their  cone-like  cabins. 
That  cluster  o'er  the  vale, 
Have  disappeared  as  withered  leaves 
Before  the  awtumn  gale. 
But  their  memory  liveth  on  your  lulls. 
Their  baptism  on  your  shore, 
Your  ever  rolling  rivers  speak,^ 
Their  dialect  of  yore." 

A  volume  of  geographical  facts  regarding  the  position  of 
the    Indians,   which   was   laid    before   the    Congress   of  the 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  415 

United  States  a  few  years  before  our  great  civil  war,  traces 
in  a  concise  manner  the  movements  of  the  Indian  tribes 
during  our  short  history. 

Once  spread  out  along  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  coasts, 
from  the  St.  John's,  in  Maine,  to  the  mouths  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Rio  Grande,  not  a  tribe  remains  on  its  orig- 
inal hunting  grounds.  Some  remnants  of  them  have  be- 
taken themselves  to  nooks  and  corners  of  their  once  wide 
domain,  where  they  linger  in  dreams  of  a  pleasing,  quiet 
philosophy  in  thinking  on  the  past.  A  few  of  them,  who 
yet  show  by  a  pie -bald  costume  a  preference  for  the  tastes 
of  their  fathers,  are  found  to  gain  a  subsistence  as  lumber- 
men on  the  banks  of  the  Penobscot — delighted  with  the 
fierce  and  wild  currents  of  waters  where  they  once  guided 
their  canoes.  Others,  living  on  the  stormy  coasts  of  Cape 
Cod  and  the  islands  of  Massachusetts,  attached  as  gulls  are 
to  their  sea  rocks,  have  adopted  the  vocation  of  seamen 
and  whalers.  The  converts  of  the  days  of  Eliot  and  the 
Mayhews  are  gone.  The  fiery  and  subtle  Pokanoket,  King 
Philip,  no  longer  alarms  the  disturbed  pilgrims  of  England. 
Nucas  has  joined  his  great  rival  Miantonima  in  the  land  of 
spirits,  and  if  the  ghosts  of  red  men  come  back  to  visit 
their  hunting  grounds,  Tamenund,  the  St.  Tammany  of  our 
history,  stalks  over  his  old  island  of  Manhattan,  literally 
the  place  of  the  whirlpool,  called  Hell  Gate,  to  ask  what  all 
this  incessant  clamor  of  ships  and  buildings  and  temples 
and  the  endless  roar  of  wheels  and  carriages  night  and  day 
imports.  The  once  haughty  Iroquois,  who  trod  the  earth 
with  a  high  step,  has  withdrawn  to  one  of  those  nooks  on 
the  western  skirts  of  his  once  lordly  patrimony,  where  he 
plows  the  soil  and  drives  oxen.  He  no  longer,  like  the  an- 
cient Idumean  chiefs,  holds  the  olive  branch  in  one  hand 
and  the  tomahawk  in  the  other,  to  sway  the  destinies  of 
councils.  His  simple  and  proud  eloquence  is  no  longer 
exerted  to  hurl  irony  at  La  Barre  from  the  tongue  of  a 
Garrangula,  or  touch  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  human 


^l6  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

heart  with  the  appeals  of  a  Logan.  The  conquered  Lenni 
Lenapees  are  no  longer  cowed  down  in  council  with  the 
keen  reproof  of  a  Canassatigo — "  Who  gave  you  authority 
to  sell  lands?"  The  Eries  have  not  come  back  to  occupy 
the  position  from  which  they  were  driven  from  near  the 
vicinage  of  the  ceaseless  roaring  of  Niagara.  The  Susque- 
hannocks  have  never  wandered  from  the  symbolic  hunting 
grounds  to  which  they  were  suddenly  dispatched  by  the 
Iroquois  tomahawks.  The  Powhatans,  who  once  swept  the 
forests  of  the  Potomac,  the  Rappahannock  and  the  princely 
James  River,  are  no  more  alarmed  by  traces  of  the  foot- 
steps of  the  sanguinary  Massawomacks,  who  have  ranged 
the  heights  and  skirts  of  the  Alleghanies  a  thousand  miles 
to  wrench  off  the  scalps  of  a  Mannahoac,  an  Erie,  a  Ca- 
tawba, or  a  Cherokee. 

The  position  of  the  tribes  is  wholly  changed.  The  Ara- 
bian magician  could  scarcely  have  done  it  more  quickly,  or 
at  least  more  effectively.  The  Alleghanies,  which  cost  a 
British  army  such  peril  to  cross  in  1775,  have  been  sur- 
mounted without  an  effort,  and  the  Ohio  valley,  so  often 
essayed  by  the  sword,  has  at  last  been  conquered  by  the 
plow.  The  tribes  have  learned  this  art  from  the  white 
man,  and  they  have  gone  west  beyond  the  Father  of  Wa- 
ters with  the  implements  of  peace  in  their  hands.  The 
Delawares  now  plant  corn  on  the  banks  of  the  Kansas,  or 
hunt  the  deer  in  Texas.  The  Mohicans,  who  once  at- 
tracted the  love  of  Zinzendorf  and  his  brethren,  and  who 
so  long  and  prominently,  under  Edwards,  enjoyed  the  care 
of  the  London  society  for  propagating  the  gospel,  yet  lin- 
ger in  fragmentary  bands  m  Eastern  Wisconsin,  or  share 
the  hospitality  of  their  Delaware  brethren  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri. There  are  found  also  spread  out  over  the  territorial 
length  of  Kansas,  the  Siiawnees,  the  true  Parthians  of  our 
history,  the  Miamis,  who  so  long  battled  for  the  Wabash, 
the  elementary  bands  of  the  once  famous  Illinois  and  the 
numerous    other    tribes  of   the   wide-spreading  Algonquin 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  417 

stock.  Pontiac  no  longer  battles  for  nationality  at  Detroit, 
nor  Minniwawinna  at  Michilimackinac. 

The  whole  Atlantic  coasts  are  as  free  from  the  footsteps 
of  those  once  proud,  populous  and  dominant  races  as  the 
ruins  of  Palmyra  are  from  the  tread  of  their  builders — 
unless  indeed  we  admit  an  exception  in  behalf  of  those 
delegates  from  the  tribes  of  the  West,  who  have  adopted 
letters,  arts  and  Christianity,  and  who  visit  the  city  of  the 
republic  periodically  to  inquire  into  their  affairs. 

The  wilderness  has  ever  been  a  very  attractive  position 
to  the  Indian.  So  early  as  1796,  while  Louisiana  was  still 
under  Spanish  rule,  two  of  the  most  active  and  restless  and 
enterprising  of  the  Algonquin  group  of  tribes,  the  Shaw- 
nees  and  the  Delawares,  made  arrangements  for  crossing 
the  Mississippi  and  occupying  positions  in  the  central  and 
wild  parts  of  that  province.  They  were  followed  in  the 
design  of  finding  better  hunting  grounds,  about  1816,  at 
the  close  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  by  a  part  of  the 
Cherokees,  who  in  the  treaty  with  the  United  States  of 
18 1 7,  secured  the  right  to  occupy  a  tract  therein  referred  to, 
lying  on  the  northern  borders  of  Arkansas.  Small  bands 
and  remnants  of  tribes  of  the  Gulf  shores  and  lower  parts 
of  Louisiana  had  at  earlier  dates  passed  into  the  region  of 
the  Red  River  and  its  tributaries.  Causes  were,  therefore, 
it  will  be  seen,  in  operation  as  the  settlements  were  devel- 
oped, to  produce  voluntary  migration  to  a  region  which 
offered  advantages  to  a  hunter  population. 

The  introduction  of  gunpowder  and  fire  arm.s  among  the 

Indian   tribes  has  produced  the  great    changes    in    Indian 

industry.     The  fur  trade  had  at  first  stimulated  the   chase 

and  aroused  the  Indian  hunter  to  greater  activity,  but  it  at 

length  reacted,  and   by  furnishing  him  greater  facilities  to 

gratify   his    tastes   produced   depopulation    and    weakness. 

His  lands  were  quickly  denuded  of  game,  and  remained  an 

encumbrance   on   h;s  hands,  but  at  the   same  time   better 

fitted  for  a  white  agricultural  p:)pulation.     By  ceding  his 
i7 


41 8  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

surplus  territory  from  time  to  time  he  has  repaired  the 
declining  fortunes  of  the  fur  trade,  and  had  the  means  of 
subsistence  and  clothing.  Taking  annuities  in  money  has 
had  a  dissipating,  if  not  a  paralyzing  effect;  for  while  the 
periodical  possession  of  wealth  which  could  not  be  pru- 
dently expended  has  not  only  operated  as  a  bar  to  industry 
but  fostered  his  native  bias  for  a  life  of  ease,  freedom  and 
idleness,  scarcely  anything  has  been  thought  of  when  want 
began  to  infringe  but  to  continue  the  course  of  cessions 
and  fly  to  remoter  localities  in  the  west.  Thus  the  entire 
maritime  borders  of  the  colonies  were  originally  relin- 
quished, and  men  now  living  have  seen  him  cross  at  sep- 
arate points  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi. 

The  name  of  Oregon  is  derived  from  the  Spanish  word 
for  the  artimesia  or  wild  sage.  This  plant  is  found  in  tiie 
country  east  of  the  Cascade  Mountains  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  to  the  sources  of  the  Nebraska.  By  the 
early  Spanish  traders  from  Santa  Fe  it  was  called  Orega/io. 
The  oldest  mountain  men  corrupted  this  term  to  Oregon. 

Before  one  proceeds  too  far  in  sympathy  for  the  Indian 
tribes,  and  lamentation  over  their  unhappy  fate,  it  is  well  to 
also  consider  the  statement  of  Schoolcraft  in  that  connec- 
tion. His  opportunities  for  investigation  and  his  research 
exceed  those  of  any  other  writer,  and  greater  weight 
attaches  to  his  conclusions.  He  says:  "  No  government  on 
earth  has  ever  been  more  liberal  in  its  political  treatment  to 
an  aboriginal  population.  All  the  ancient  conquerors  of 
Europe  and  Asia  put  iron  yokes  upon  the  subdued  nations. 
The  most  grievous  political  exactions  were  everywhere 
made.  Rome  tried  to  exterminate  the  Britons,  and  the 
Normans  made  the  Anglo-Saxon  actually  go  to  bed  at 
curfew  to  prevent  faction  from  germinating."  William  Von 
Humboldt  observes  in  his  investigations  among  the  Basque 
tribes  of  Spain  that  even  the  very  terms  and  monuments  of 
their  traditions  and  history  had  been  obliterated  by  their 
Spanish    conquerors,  and  that  their   curious  and   complex 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  4I9 

language  was  in  fact  all  that  was  left  to  denote  their  old 
nationality.  The  Spanish  did  the  same  thing  in  America, 
so  far  as  related  to  the  antiquities  of  maps,  picture  writings 
and  a  certain  class  of  sculptures  in  Mexico.  Where  they 
could  not  destroy  they  buried  them,  as  we  behold  in  the 
great  calendar  stone  of  Mexico,  which  is  par  excelleiice  the 
monument  of  the  astronomical  knowledge  of  the  Toltecs 
and  Aztecs. 

The  agriculture  of  the  Indian  was,  of  course,  extremely 
rude.  He  was  indeed  separated  by  a  wide  step  from  agri- 
cultural life.  Barbarous  nations  first  become  pastoral  and 
then  agricultural.  The  Indian  had  not  yet  reached  the 
pastoral  state  when  America  was  discovered,  and  the 
attempt  to  force  civilization  upon  him  without  its  transi- 
tional stages  was  a  failure.  He  withered  away  before  the 
touch  of  civilization. 

Still  he  preserved  for  the  European  races  that  were  to 
succeed  him,  three  gifts  of  the  soil  worth  many  thousands 
of  times  more  than  all  the  wealth  of  the  Peruvian  Incas. 
These  were  tobacco,  the  potatoe,  and  Indian  corn.  These 
articles  have  given  commerce  and  civilization  an  impetus 
that  is  almost  incalculable.  Subtract  Indian  corn  from  the 
history  of  America  and  it  would  place  us  backward  hun- 
dreds of  years  in  the  calendar  of  progress.  Still  this  food 
was  planted  only  to  a  limited  extent  by  the  Atlantic  and 
Mississippi  tribes,  for  no  trader  or  traveler  has  noticed  its 
cultivation  among  the  interior  or  mountain  tribes. 

Tobacco  was  discovered  in  America  by  the  Spaniards  in 
1560.  It  had  been  used  by  the  aborigines  from  unknown 
times,  and  the  greatest  value  was  set  upon  it.  It  was  first 
sent  to  Spain  from  a  port  in  Yucutan,  called  Tobago, 
whence  the  name.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  introduced  it  into 
England  about  1585,  and  first  taught  the  people  how  to 
use  it.  The  plant  is  now  used  by  most  European  and 
Asiatic  nations,  and  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of 
priests  and  rulers,  has   taken  hold    upon  all  classes  of  p''0- 


420  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

pie.  The  Turks  and  Syrians  are  as  much  addicted  to  its 
use  as  the  North  American  Indians  themselves,  and  some 
of  the  most  caustic  and  witty  observers  of  the  manners  of 
the  United  States,  have  made  it  a  point  to  launch  some 
of  their  sharpest  shafts  of  ridicule  at  its  extensive  use 
among  our  people.  Its  value  as  an  agricultural  product 
places  it  very  high  in  our  list  of  productions.  There  ap- 
pears to  be  no  mention  of  it  in  ancient  histor)\  Heroditus 
is  silent.  The  pyramids  cast  no  light  on  the  topic.  It  is 
conceded  to  be  of  American  origin,  and  the  chief  supplies 
are  brought  from  the  United  States. 

The  potato  is  now  an  important  part  of  the  food  of 
civilized  man.  Before  its  importation  from  America  the 
Englishman  supplemented  his  roast  beef  with  parsnips. 
The  large  amount  of  food  which  it  yields  from  a  small 
space  of  ground,  led  to  its  early  introduction  into  Ireland, 
where  it  became  the  chief  food  of  large  masses  of  people. 
Hence  the  misleading  term  applied  to  the  more  important 
variety  called  "  Irish  potatoes,"  as  distinguished  from  the 
sweet  potato. 

To  those  who  first  made  a  study  of  Indian  government, 
their  institutions  appeared  too  rude  to  entitle  them  to 
respect,  but  we  who  live  under  republican  rule  may  now 
trace  its  characteristics,  and  find  in  some  of  them  the  con- 
centrated wisdom  of  the  ages.  Nor  is  it  impossible  that 
the  early  Americans  gathered  light  from  the  teachings  of 
these  solons  of  the  forest. 

It  is  a  memorable  fact  that  the  Iroquois  were  so  strongly 
impressed  with  the  wisdom  of  the  workings  of  their  system 
that  they  publicly  recommended  a  similar  union  to  the 
British  colonies.  In  the  important  conferences  at  Lancas- 
ter in  1774,  Cannasatigo,  a  respected  sachem,  expressed 
this  view  to  the  commissioners  of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia 
and  Maryland:  "Our  wise  forefathers,"  he  said,  "estab- 
lished unity  and  amity  between  the  five  nations.  This  has 
made  us  formidable.     This  has  given  us  great  weight  and 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  421 

.authority  with  our  neighboring  nations.  We  are  a  power- 
ful confederacy,  and  by  observing  the  same  methods  our 
wise  forefathers  have  taken  you  will  acquire  fresh  strength 
and  power.  Therefore  I  counsel  you,  whatever  befalls 
you,  never  to  fall  out  with  one  another."  No  sage  of  the 
brightest  day  of  Greece  could  have  more  fully  appreciated 
the  secret  of  power  and  success,  and,  viewed  in  the  light  of 
our  recent  history,  we  must  adcord  to  this  wise  man  the 
gift  of  the  greatest  elevation  of  mind,  bordering  upon  ac- 
tual inspiration. 

It  remained  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  who  had  them- 
selves been  struggling  for  civil  liberty  and  private  rights 
from  the  days  of  King  John,  to  appreciate  fully  the  true 
character  of  the  Iroquois  confederacy.  No  persons  seem 
to  have  been  better  qualified  to  express  their  sense  of  this 
confederacy,  or  to  have  so  early  seen  its  merits  as  Cadwal- 
lader  Golden  or  DeWitt  Glinton. 

"The  five  nations,"  observes  Golden,  in  1747,  "consist  of 
so  many  tribes  or  nations  joined  together  by  a  league  or 
confederacy,  like  the  United  Provinces,  without  any  supe- 
riority the  one  over  the  other.  This  union  has  continued  so 
long  that  the  Christians  know  nothing  of  the  original  of  it. 
The  people  in  it  are  known  to  the  English  under  the  names 
of  Mohawks,  Oneydoes,  Onondagas,  Gayugas  and  Senecas." 

The  Tuscarawas,  after  fleeing  from  Carolina,  found  ref- 
uge with  these  nations  and  became  incorporated  with  them, 
and  the  Greek  Indians  were  also  admitted  to  their  friend- 
ship as  members  of  the  confederacy. 

The  historian  of  their  day  says  of  them :  "  The  Five  Na- 
tions have  such  absolute  notions  of  liberty  that  they  allow 
of  no  kind  of  superiority  of  one  over  another,  and  banish 
all  servitude  from  their  territories.  They  never  make  any 
prisoner  a  slave,  but  it  is  customary  to  make  a  compliment 
of  naturalization  into  the  Five  Nations,  and  considering  how 
highly  they  value  themselves  above  all  others,  this  must  be 
no  small  compliment." 


422  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Monsieur  De  la  Paterie,  in  his  History  of  North  Amer- 
ica, says  of  them  :  "When  we  speak  of  the  Five  Nations  in 
France  they  are  thought,  by  a  common  mistake,  to  be 
mere  barbarians,  always  thirsting  after  human  blood;  but 
their  true  character  is  very  different.  They  are  indeed  the 
fiercest  and  most  formidable  people  in  North  America,  and 
at  the  same  time  are  as  polite  and  judicious  as  can  well  be 
conceived.  An  old  IMohawk  sachem,  in  a  poor  blanket 
and  a  dirty  shirt,  may  be  seen  issuing  his  orders  with  as 
arbitrary  an  authority  as  a  Roman  dictator." 

The  influence  of  women  among  this  singularly  wise  and 
brave  people  is  clearly  presented  by  Mr.  Cadwallader  Col- 
den,  who  had  often  been  a  commissioner  to  the  Iroquois 
during  the  reign  of  George  II,  and  who  received  from 
them  the  compliment  of  adoption  : 

"  The  history  of  the  world  shows  that  it  is  one  of  the 
tendencies  of  bravery  to  cause  woman  to  be  respected,  and 
to  assume  her  proper  rank  and  influence  in  society.  This 
was  strikingly  manifested  in  the  history  of  the  Iroquois. 
They  are  the  only  tribes  in  America,  North  or  South,  so 
far  as  we  have  any  accounts,  who  gave  to  woman  a  con- 
servative power  in  their  political  deliberations.  The 
Iroquois  matrons  had  their  representative  in  the  public 
councils,  and  they  exercised  a  negative,  or  what  we  call  the 
veto  power,  in  the  important  question  of  the  declaration  of 
war.  They  had  the  right,  also,  to  interpose  in  bringing 
about  a  peace.  It  did  not  compromise  the  war  policy  of 
the  cantons  if  the  body  of  the  matrons  expressed  a  deci- 
sion in  favor  of  peace.  To  such  a  pitch  of  power  had  the 
Iroquois  confederacy  reached  on  the  discovery  of  New 
York  in  1609,  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  if  the  arrival 
of  the  Europeans  had  been  delayed  a  century  later  it 
would  have' absorbed  all  the  tribes  situated  between  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  if  not  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Such  a  process  of  extension  was  in 
rapid  progress  when  they  were  first   supplied  with  fire-arms 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  423 

by  the  northern  colonists,  and  as  this  was  in  advance  of  the 
Western  tribes  the  result  was  for  a  long  time  promoted 
by  it." 

It  is  the  observation  of  DeWitt  Clinton,  a  man  of  lofty 
intellect,  and  who  is  regarded  as  having  been  one  of  the 
greatest  benefactors  of  his  native  State  of  New  York,  that 
the  Iroquois  were  the  only  people  of  the  Indian  stocks  who 
possessed  true  eloquence ;  yet  we  have  seen  since  Clinton's 
time  some  of  the  finest  examples  of  eloquence  of  which 
history  can  boast,  in  Florida  and  along  the  Mississippi 
river,  among  native  chiefs  who  felt  deeply,  and  who  ex- 
pressed themselves  strongly. 

We  have  seen  in  a  preceding  chapter  that  when  the 
Black  Hawk  war  broke  out,  General  Harney  was  a  Captain 
in  the  army,  and  that  he  took  a  lively  part  in  that  memor- 
able struggle.  Black  Hawk,  who  has  obtained  such  wide 
celebrity,  was  not  a  chief,  and  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  a  man  of  high  qualities,  though  he  was  the  central 
figure  of  a  memorable  struggle,  and  leader  of  a  people 
engaged  in  a  brave  but  hopeless  war  against  the  United 
States.  Having  been  taken  prisoner  at  the  close  of  that 
contest,  he  was  conducted,  with  a  few  companions,  to 
Washington  and  some  other  cities,  where  his  fame  and  his 
misfortunes  caused  so  much  curiosity  that  he  was  every- 
where visited  by  crowds,  while  his  propriety  of  deportment 
was  such  as  to  sustain  the  reputation  that  had  preceded 
him. 

Keokuk,  chief  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  is  said  to  have 
been  possessed  of  a  fine  person  and  gifted  with  courage, 
prudence  and  eloquence.  He  was  also  the  most  daring  and 
graceful  rider  of  his  nation,  was  always  well  mounted,  and 
he  no  doubt  owed  much- of  his  popularity  to  his  imposing 
appearance  when  equipped  for  war  or  ceremony,  and  to  his 
feats  of  horsemanship.  "  Keokuk, "  says  the  chronicler  of 
his  time,  "  is  in  all  respects  a  magnificent  savage.  Bold, 
enterprising  and  impulsive,   he   is  also   placable,  and  pos- 


424 


LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 


sesses  an  intimate  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  a  tact 
which  enables  him  to  bring  the  resources  of  his  mind  into 
prompt  operation.  " 

He  once  displayed  his  skill  and  eloquence  in  a  remarka- 
ble manner.  Some  of  his  warriors  falling  in  with  an 
encampment  of  unarmed  Menomines  in  sight  of  Fort 
Crawford  at   Prairie  Du  Chien,  murdered  the  whole  party. 

The  Menomines,  justly  incensed  at  this  unprovoked  and 
cowardly  murder,  declared  war,  and  their  friends,  the  Win- 
nebagoes,  who  were  previously  hostile  to  the  Sauks  or 
Sacs,  were  also  highly  indignant  at  this  outrage.  To  pre- 
vent a  sanguinary  war,  General  Street,  agent  of  the  United 
States  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  invited  the  several  tribes  to  a 
council.  They  assembled  at  Fort  Crawford,  but  the  Men- 
omines positively  refused  to  hold  any  negotiations  with  the 
offending  party.  When  Keokuk  was  informed  of  this  res- 
olution he  told  the  Agent  confidentially  that  it  made  no 
difference;  that  he  would  make  a  treaty  with  the  Men- 
omines before  they  separated.  All  he  asked  was  to  be 
brought  face  to  face  with  them  in  the  council  house.  The 
several  tribes  accordingly  assembled,  each  sitting  apart,  but 
when  the  ceremony  of  smoking,  which  precedes  all  public 
discussions,  was  commenced,  the  Menomines  refused  to 
join  in  it,  sitting  in  moody  silence,  while  the  other  tribes 
indulged  in  this  ordinary  courtesy.  The  breach  between 
the  Sacs  and  Foxes  and  the  Winnebagoes  was  talked  over, 
explanations  were  mutually  made  and  peace  cemented. 

Keokuk  then  turned  toward  the  Menomines  and  ad- 
dressed them.  They  at  first  averted  their  faces  or  listened 
with  looks  of  defiance.  The  commencement  of  a  speech 
without  previously  smoking  and  shaking  hands  was  a 
breach  of  etiquette,  and  he  was  besides  the  head  of  a  tribe 
which  had  done  them  an  injury  that  nothing  but  blood 
CO  ild  atone  for.  Under  all  these  disadvantages  the  Sauk 
chief  proceeded  with  his  harangue,  and  such  was  the 
power  of  his  eloquence  even  upon  men  thus  predisposed, 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  42$ 

that  his  hearers  gradually  relaxed,  listened,  assented,  and 
when  he  concluded  by  saying  proudly,  but  in  a  conciliatory 
tone :  "  I  come  here  to  say  that  I  am  sorry  for  the  impru- 
dence of  my  young  men — I  come  to  make  peace,  I  now 
offer  the  hand  of  Keokuk.  Who  will  refuse  it  ?  " — they 
rose  one  by  one  and  accepted  the  proffered  grasp. 

Could  our  own  Daniel  Webster,  or  Burke,  or  Pitt,  have 
relied  upon  his  powers  of  eloquence  and  persuasion  more 
completely  than  did  Keokuk  ? 

When  Keokuk,  with  a  deputation,  among  whom  were 
some  Sioux,  the  hereditary  enemies  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes, 
visited  Washington,  the  observer  at  that  time  remarked, 
"  We  remarked  a  decided  want  of  gracefulness  in  all  these 
speakers.  Each  of  them,  having  shaken  hands  with  the 
Secretary  of  War,  who  sat  facing  the  audience,  stood  im- 
mediately before  and  near  him,  with  the  interpreter  at  his 
elbow,  both  having  their  backs  to  the  spectators,  and  in 
this  awkward  position,  speaking  low  and  rapidly,  but  little 
of  what  was  said  could  be  understood  except  by  persons 
near  them. 

"  Not  so  with  Keokuk.  When  it  came  his  turn  to  speak, 
he  rose  deliberately,  advanced  to  the  Secretary,  and  having 
saluted  him,  returned  to  his  place,  which,  being  at  the  front 
of  the  stage,  and  at  one  side  of  it,  his  face  was  not  con- 
cealed from  any  of  the  several  parties  present.  His  inter- 
preter stood  beside  him.  The  whole  arrangement  was 
judicious,  and  though  apparently  unstudied,  showed  the 
tact  of  the  orator.  He  stood  erect,  in  an  easy  but  martial 
posture,  with  his  robe  thrown  over  his  left  shoulder  and 
arm,  leaving  the  right  arm  bare  to  be  used  in  action.  His 
voice  was  fine.  His  enunciation  remarkably  clear,  dis- 
tinct, and  rapid.  Those  who  have  had  the  gratification  of 
hearing  a  distinguished  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  now 
in  Congress,  whose  rapidity  of  utterance,  concentration  of 
thought,  and  conciseness  of  language  are  alike  peculiar  to 
himself,  may  form  some  idea  of  the  style  of  Keokuk, — the 


426  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

latter  adding,  however,  an  attention  to  graces  of  attitude 
and  action  to  which  the  former  makes  no  pretension.  He 
spoke  with  dignity,  but  with  great  animation.  '  They  tell 
you,'  said  he,  '  that  our  ears  must  be  bored  with  sticks, 
but,  my  father,  you  cannot  penetrate  their  thick  skulls  in 
that  way,  it  would  require  a  hot  iron.  They  say  they  would 
as  soon  think  of  making  peace  with  this  child  as  with  us 
(pointing  to  his  son,  a  lad  of  about  ten  years,  who  accom- 
panied him),  but  they  know  better  ;  for  when  they  made 
war  with  us  they  found  us  men.  They  tell  you  that  peace 
has  often  been  made  but  we  have  broken  it.  How  happens 
it,  then,  that  so  many  of  their  brav^  have  been  slain  in  our 
country?  I  will  tell  you.  They  invaded  us;  we  never 
invaded  them.  None  of  my  braves  have  been  killed  in 
their  country.  We  have  their  scalps  and  can  tell  where  we 
took  them.'  " 

Having  presented  something  of  Indian  character,  it  is 
interesting  to  see  General  Harney's  method  of  deaUng 
with  them.  The  council  held  by  him  after  the  battle  of 
Ash  Hollow  has  been  adverted  to  in  the  narrative  of  this 
book.  Some  of  the  minutes  of  the  proceedings,  as  com- 
municated by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  Franklin 
Pierce,  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  give  a 
clear  insight  into  the  animating  spirit  on  both  sides. 

There  were  present  delegations  from  nine  of  the  bands 
of  the  Sioux. 

The  General  opened  the  council  by  speaking  to  the  In- 
dians through  Zephyr  Rencontre,  as  follows : 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  you  here,  according  to  my  request  of 
one  hundred  days  ago.  The  Ogallalas  have  not  come,  and 
that  is  the  nwstake  of  their  agent ;  they  are  coming.  Big 
Head  has  not  come,  but  I  did  not  expect  him ;  I  suppose 
him  to  be  too  busy. 

"  I  told  tile  people  who  were  here  a  hundred  days  ago 
that  I  would  write  to  their  Great  Father,  and  perhaps  he 
would  say  something  that  might  please  tiiem ;  that  I  would 
do  all  I  could  for  them  to  make  them  happy. 


THE  AMERICAN   INDIAN.  42/ 

"  Here's  what  I  have  to  say  to  them  now — what  the 
Great  Father  has  told  me  to  say  after  I  had  written  to  him 
that  the  Indians  were  very  humble,  and  very  sorry  for  what 
they  had  done,  and  would  do  whatever  he  told  them. 
Now  listen  to  what  the  Great  Father  says." 

The  treaty  was  then  read  and  interpreted  to  the  Indians, 
after  which  General  Harney  proceeded  as  follows  : 

"  The  Brules  here  have  done  very  well ;  I  am  very  well 
pleased  with  their  conduct  lately.  I  told  them  at  Laramie 
that  when  all  the  murderers  were  given  up  their  people  who 
are  now  our  prisoners  should  be  restored  to  them.  Tiiere 
is  only  two  men  now  to  be  given  up,  '  the  man  who  killed 
the  cow%  '  and  '  the  one  ,who  killed  Gibson, '  and  I  hope  you 
have  them  here  now  that  I  can  give  to  the  Brules  their 
prisoners.  The  stolen  property  can  be  given  up  after  this ; 
but  the  women  and  children  of  the  Brules  are  crying  to  go 
home,  and  as  soon  as  these  two  men  are  delivered  up, 
then  these  women  and  children  can  go  with  the  Brules. 
When  you  have  done  this,  and  returned  all  the  stolen  prop- 
erty of  every  description,  then  your  annuities  will  be  re- 
stored to  you.  These  annuities,  hereafter,  will  always  be 
given  out  at  a  military  post  and  nowhere  else.  Hereafter, 
that  you  may  have  justice  done  you,  and  that  you  may  not 
be  imposed  on  by  the  traders,  all  trading  will  be  done  at  the 
military  posts.  This  will  enable  you  to  get  your  things  at 
a  fair  price  ;  you  will  be  dealt  with  fairly  and  reasonably ; 
and  if  the  traders  don't  behave  themselves,  but  try  to 
impose  on  the  Indians,  I  will  send  them  out  of  the  country. 

"  I  have  now  told  you  w^hat  the  Great  Father  told  me, 
with  his  own  mouth  and  his  own  words,  to  tell  you ;  and  he 
has  left  it  with  me  to  do  anything  I  think  proper  with  you. 
What  I  say  is  this  :  The  Great  Father  sent  your  father, 
Colonel  Vaughan,  here  to  advise  you  and  assist  you ;  but 
you  did  not  listen  to  him,  but  insulted  him  and  behaved 
very  badly,  indeed ;  and  this  is  one  great  reason  the  Great 
Father  sent  me  here  to  punish  you,  and  I  am  going  to  do 
it.  The  Sioux  are  not  friends  to  themselves ;  and  not  until 
they  do  what  is  required  of  them  will  I  be  their  friend. 
Do  as  I  tell  them  and  they  will  find  me  the  best  friend  they 
ever  had ;  but  if  they  don't  do  it,  they  will  find  me  the 
worst  enemy  they  ever  had." 


^28  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

On  the  second  day,  Little  Thunder,  chief  of  the  Platte 
Brules,  spoke  as  follows,  through  the  interpreter  : 

"  I  came  here  to'  see  you  because  you  sent  for  me.  I 
did  not  know  what  the  manners  of  the  whites  are,  but  I  will 
tell  you  what  I  have  thought  of  on  my  road  here.  I  don't 
wish  to  fight  you.  What  I  want  with  you  is  to  shake  hands 
with  you  and  hold  your  hands  hard.  All  the  women  and 
children  who  were  in  my  lodge,  you  have  them  here,  but 
they  are  alive  and  I  am  glad.  You  took  them  on  the 
Platte.     I  was  there  when  I  heard  that  you  have  called  me. 

"At  the  Laramie  you  called  me  for  five  of  my  men,  and 
I  have  given  them  to  you.  After  that  you  asked  me  for 
horses,  and  I  gave  them  to  you.  After  that  I  stood  there 
and  listened  and  watched  to  see  if  you  would  call  me  and 
deliberate  for  me.  You  called  me,  I  heard  it,  and  started 
to  come.  The  snow^  was  very  bad,  but  I  have  come,  and  I 
am  now  satisfied  you  will  give  me  my  life.  When  I  left 
my  camp  all  my  men,  women  and  children  were  waiting 
for  me  to  return.  They  expect  me  to  bring  our  people  who 
are  prisoners  with  me. 

"  You  have  asked  us  to  be  friendly.  I  have  tried,  and  if 
we  are  not  so  it  is  not  my  fault.  My  friends  that  are  here 
have  got  chiefs.  I  am  not  a  chief.  They  can  deliberate 
and  see.  My  friends  have  heard  that  you  have  asked  them 
for  two  men.  I  wish  I  was  in  their  place.  I  would  bring 
them  in.     This  is  all  I  have  to  say." 

To  this  speech  General  Harney  replied  that  he  was 
pleased  wath  what  he  had  said.  "  Yours  was  the  first  band 
of  the  Sioux  I  met  when  I  came  to  fight,  but  if  I  had  met 
any  other  band  it  would  have  been  the  same.  I  am  sorr}' 
it  fell  so  hard  upon  Little  Thunder.  From  what  we  had 
heard  I  expected  to  fight  them  everywhere.  Their  young 
men  had  done  a  great  many  bad  things,  so  many  that  their 
Great  Father  had  sent  his  soldiers  here.  I  don't  find  them 
as  I  expected.  Their  feelings  are  different  from  wliat  I 
expected.  There  are  a  great  many  good  men  anu)ng  tiiem, 
but  some  bad  ones,  like  other  people.  I  tliink  the  great 
trouble  with  them  is.  the  young  men  don't  obey  their 
chiefs.  If  they  did  that  there  would  be  no  trouble.  As  I 
told  them  yesterd<i>-,  ilieir  chiefs  must  be  obeyed.  These 
I  see  here  are  the  principal  chiefs  of  the  different  bands.     I 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  429' 

am  satisfied  they  are  all  disposed  to  be  friendly  and  keep 
at  peace  with  the  whites.  They  can  look  to  me  as  their 
friend,  and  if  their  people  don't  obey  them  I  will  fight  for 
them  and  make  them  obey.  I  shall  always  look  to  these 
chiefs  as  the  heads  of  the  different  bands.  I  shall  not  rec- 
ognize anybody  else.  If  they  want  any  advice  or  assistance 
let  them  come  to  me.  I  will  not  recognize  any  other  chiefs, 
neither  will  the  father  here,  or  any  of  the  agents.  I  hope 
they  will  all  support  each  other  to  keep  peace  with  the 
whites. 

"  Tell  Little  Thunder  he  has  done  so  well  that  I  think  he 
and  his  people  have  done  enough  at  present,  and  I  do  not 
ask  him  to  take  any  hand  in  bringing  in  the  other  two  men. 
The  Sioux  ought  not  to  expect  it ;  he  stood  forward  be- 
tween them  and  the  whites,  and  is  the  only  one  who  has 
suffered  yet. 

"  I  feel  like  shakmg  hands  with  all  the  chiefs,  particularly 
Little  Thunder ;  but  that  is  not  our  way,  I  have  no  doubt 
in  a  few  days,  when  those  men  are  brought  in,  I  shall  be 
able  to  do  it. 

"The  stolen  animals  can  be  brought  in  in  a  reasonable 
time.  Tell  Little  Thunder  that  he  can  have  his  people  that 
are  here  to  take  back  with  him — (Applause.) 

"  When  we  go  to  war,  some  of  the  good  have  to  suffer 
with  the  bad,  we  cannot  help  it ;  but  some  of  them  among 
you  had  better  recollect  it ;  I  cannot  separate  the  bad  from 
the  good  ;  they  must  do  it  themselves." 

In  the  proceedings  of  the  fourth  day  the  Yancton  chief 
presented  a  picture  of  his  own  suffering  and  his  action,  and 
showed  a  dignified  and  honorable  demeanor.   He  said  : 

"  I\Iy  brother  :  I  am  going  to  speak,  and  I  believe  the 
Great  Spirit  will  hear  me  ;  I  am  going  to  speak,  the  Great 
Spirit  knows  it,  and  has  given  me  a  beautiful  day.  Since 
we  commenced  this  talk  we  have  not  had  so  beautiful  a 
day.  The  man  who  calls  himself  a  man  and  is  not  afraid 
to  die,  is  yourself  I  am  one  also.  I  think  that  I  am  brave, 
and  for  my  death,  I  am  not  afraid  of  it.  What  I  call  my 
bravery  is  this :  I  traveled  all  day  to  get  here  and  did  not 
eat  or  sleep,  and  the  next  day  and  night  I  did  the  same. 
This  is  what  I  call  brave.  As  for  bravery,  I  am  not  afraid 
to  lose  my  life.     This  starvation  is  worse  than  my  bravery. 


430  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

I  was  SO  hungry  that  when  I  saw  your  cattle  I  could  not 
help  eat  them,  and  that's  what  kept  me  alive.  Let  you  be 
as  brave  as  you  please,  if  you  starve  you  will  take  what  you 
meet  with  and  live. 

"  I  am  not  going  to  beg  you  for  my  life  ;  I  believe  I  am 
a  man,  and  I  am  not  going  to  beg  you  for  my  life.  I  see 
you  here,  and  your  manners  and  situation  are  enough  to 
scare  any  of  us ;  but  if  I  .was  afraid  I  would  squat  down, 
but  I  don't.  If  I  do  what  you  tell  me,  I  know  I  will  be 
well  off  and  well  treated. 

"  Yo'> mentioned  to  me  your  cattle.  Yes!  I  have  eaten 
twelve  of  them  ;  but  they  were  on  my  land.  I  ate  some — 
the  Saiitees  ate  some — and  the  half-breeds  ate  some ;  but 
you  counted  me  one ;  I  ate  twelve  ;  on  that  account  you 
have  asked  me  nineteen  horses.  If  I  had  been  you,  I 
would  not  have  asked  for  those  horses  at  that  time,  when 
they  were  poor — I  would  have  waited  till  spring.  I  got 
the  horses  to  bring  them,  but  on  my  way  four  have  died — 
and  again  four  more  have  died — and  I  have  only  eleven. 
Do  you  think  your  fresh  meat  is  worth  more  than  anything 
else?  Let  me  know  so,  and  I  will  bear  it.  If  I  had  owned  the 
horses,  I  should  not  mind;  it  is  not  the  number  I  care  for; 
but  I  havn't  got  them.  I  have  always  done  what  the  father 
here  (Col.  Vaughan)  has  told  me.  It  is  very  hard,  when  a 
man  has  only  one  thing  to  give  more  than  he  has  got. 

"  I  can't  make  horses  out  of  the  ground  ;  if  you  are  not 
satisfied,  do  with  me  what  you  please ;  take  my  body  and 
sell  me — do  what  you  please. 

"This  is  what  my  heart  speaks;  I  have  some  young  men 
here  yet,  who  will  listen  to  me." 

Later  in  the  conference  the  same  chief  explained  his 
action  more  fully,  and  General  Harney  knew  him  to  be 
speaking  truth,  and  treated  him  magnanimously  : 

"  I  don't  want  to  tell  no  lies ;  I  want  to  tell  the  truth. 
'Twas  Little  Provost;  he  told  me  there  was  an  ox  thrown 
away;  to  go  after  it  and  eat  it.  My  young  men  started, 
but  it  was  so  wild  they  had  to  kill  it." 

The  General  then  said :  "I  know  he  was  hungry;  but 
the  Great  Father  can't  give  the  cattle  he  wants  for  his  sol- 
diers to  everybody.     I  thought  the  troops  that  went  down 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  43 1 

to  your  country  would  have  plenty  of  fresh  meat ;  that  you 
would  save  it  for  them  ;  but  they  had  nothing.  It  is  not 
for  the  value  of  the  cattle  ;  but  we  want  them  now  to  give 
to  your  people  here.  But  that's  a  small  matter;  he  did  not 
try  to  hide  it,  but  came  out  and  acted  like  a  man.  I 
would  have  been  better  pleased  if  they  had  kept  some  of 
them." 

Thc-man-that-is-striick-by-the-Ree  then  said  that  his  peo- 
ple did  not  take  all  the  cattle  ;  that  a  half-breed  by  the 
name  of  Sizzieodore,  son  of  old  Dorion,  took  two ; 
■"they  have  sent  me  a  letter  on  that  account.  Sizzieodore 
left  us  and  started  to  go  west  among  the  Brules ;  I  don't 
know  where." 

The  General  said :  "  I  want  '  Little  Thunder '  to  make 
him  go  away  from  the  Brules ;  and  if  he  don't,  and  I  catch 
him  in  the  country,  I'll  hang  him.  'Tis  men  like  that  who 
set  so  bad  an  example  to  the  Indians.  I  won't  have  such 
men  among  the  Indians.  He  says  he  got  but  twelve  cat- 
tle. I  only  want  him  to  settle  for  twelve.  He  should  have 
told  me  so  before." 

The-inan-that-is-struck-by-the-Ree  said  his  people  had 
only  killed  nine.     Sizzieodore  two ;  and  a  Frenchman  one. 

The  General  said :  "  As  far  as  he  is  concerned  that  is  all 
settled.  I  know  what  it  is  to  be  hungry  ;  and  I  can  look 
over  a  great  deal. 

"  As  to  his  making  peace  with  the  Pawnees.  I  don't 
want  him  to  make  peace,  if  the  Pawnees  strike  him  after  I 
speak  to  them,  I  will  go  with  him  myself,  and  all  he  is  to 
do  is  to  show  me  the  trail. 

"  I  ask  you  to  make  this  peace,  as  it  is  for  the  benefit  of  all 
of  us ;  and  if  any  violate  it,  they  will  have  me  on  their 
backs,  and  they  will  find  me  a  hard  load  to  carry.  The 
Cheyennes  will  also  have  to  behave  themselves.  " 

The  same  chief,  later  on,  very  happily  sums  up  some  of 
the  abuses  of  Indian  management: 

"  I  believe  to-day  you  wish  to  give  me  the  life.  You 
pick  out  the  poorest  man  you  have  and  send  him  up  here 
to  give  us  our  goods. 

"  When  an  agent  comes  here  he  is  poor,  but  he  gets  rich, 
and  after  he  gets  rich  he  goes  away  and  another  poor  one 


432  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

comes.  Xow  there's  a  greiit  many  white  men,  but  there 
are  some  thieves  among  them.  I  say  so,  but  this  father 
here  (Colonel  Vaughan)  I  wish  him  to  stay  and  be  our 
father,  and  I  wish  to  let  you  know ;  for  if  you  send  an- 
other I  shall  be  afraid  of  him.  I  will  tell  him  I  don't  know 
him." 

General  Harney's  views  of  Indian  management,  and  the 
truthfulness  and  good  faith  of  the  Indians,  is  well  put  in 
his  testimony  before  the  House  committee  on  Indian  Af- 
fairs.    That  testimony  tells  its  own  story  : 

Washington,  D.  C,  February  4,  1874. 

General  Harney  appeared  before  the  committee  in  re- 
sponse to  its  invitation. 

The  Chairman.  State  the  length  and  extent  of  your  mil- 
itary service  on  the  Indian  frontier. 

General  Harney.  The  greater  portion  of  my  military 
service  has  been  on  the  frontier,  among  the  Indians. 

Q.  What  military  department  or  division  did  j'ou  com- 
mand ?     A.   I  never  had  the  command  of  a  division. 

Q.  At  what  points  in  the  present  Indian  country  did  you 
serve  ?     A.  From  Florida  to  Dakota. 

Q.  How  long  since  you  have  been  in  command  ?  A.  It 
is  some  ten  or  twelve  years  since  I  have  been  retired  from 
active  service. 

Q.  State  with  what  Indian  tribes  you  were  brought  in 
contact  as  a  military  officer  ?  A.  Principally  with  the  Sioux 
and  Cheyennes,  and  all  the  Indians  of  the  plains,  and  the 
Florida  Indians.  I  was  very  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  Siou.K  for  a  great  many  years,  and  have  been  stationed 
among  the  Winnebagoes,  Menomonees,  and  other  Indians. 

Q.  The  question  has  been  discussed  as  to  the  manage- 
ment of  Indian  tribes  by  the  army,  and  as  you  have  had 
great  experience  in  command  of  the  army  on  the  frontier, 
the  committee  desires  to  have  y^our  opinion  as  to  whether 
the  army  can  manage  Indian  affairs  better  than,  or  equally 
as  well  as,  the  Indian  Bureau  ?  A.  I  think  decidedl\-  it  ca  1, 
and  better. 

Q,  Give  your  reasons.  A.  The  Indians  have  more  re- 
spect for  the  militar)',  and  more  fear  of  them,  and  there 
would   be   less  stealing.     I   must   use  plain  words ;   I  have 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  433 

seen  so  much  of  it,  that  I  know  the  Indians  are  robbed  con- 
tinually. That,  I  think,  is  pretty  well  known,  and  I  assert 
it  positively.  I  know  it  of  my  own  knowledge.  That-  is 
the  principal  cause  of  Indian  difficulties,  I  think.  In  fact,  if 
we  would  keep  our  treaty  stipulations  with  the  Indians  we 
would  have  no  trouble  with  them.  The  Indians  do  not 
violate  their  treaty  stipulations,  except  when  they  are 
driven  to  it  by  the  whites. 

Q.  Do  you  think  that  it  is  the  disposition  of  the  Indian 
tribes  to  observe  treaty  stipulations  ?  A.  Yes ;  I  have 
never  known  but  two  instances  in  which  they  violated  trea- 
ties. One  was  the  case  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  and  the 
other  the  case  of  the  Seminoles  in  Florida.  They  were 
treated  with,  and  were  to  have  gone  west,  but  the  Govern- 
ment did  not  require  them  to  comply  with  the  conditions 
of  the  treaty  for  many  years,  and  by  the  time  they  were 
required  to  go  west  all  the  leading  men  who  had  made  the 
treaty  were  dead,  and  the  Indians  of  that  day  said  that 
they  were  not  going  to  obey  a  treaty  which  was  made  by 
"a  parcel  of  old  women."  It  was  the  same  thing  with  the 
Sacs  and  Foxes.  Ignorant  as  they  were,  there  was  some 
excuse  for  them,  but  still  they  were  punished.  We  were 
fighting  the  Seminoles  for  about  seven  years. 

Q.  Are  these  Indian  wars  incited  by  the  settlers,  or  are 
they  brought  about  by  the  army  ?  A.  I  never  heard  of 
any  di'ficulty  being  brought  about  by  the  army.  It  is 
prmcipally  the  whisky  sellers  and  the  Indian  agents  that 
make  the  difficulty.  The  Indian  agents  go  out  there  to 
feather  their  own  nests.  Agents  should  never  open  a 
tierce,  box,  or  any  package  till  the  Indians  are  all  present 
to  witness  the  operation.  This  would  prevent  any  diffi- 
culty or  trouble  to  the  agents. 

Q.  Of  how  many  Indian  agents  have  you  such  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  that  you  can  speak  advisedly  of  their 
character  ?  A.  I  cannot  say  how  many.  I  have  been  a 
good  deal  among  the  Indians,  and  have  been  often  present 
when  goods  were  issued  to  them,  but  I  had  nothing  to  do 
with  it. 

Q.  You  have  had  experience  when  the  Indian  tribes 
were  under  the  management  of  the  War  Department,  and 
you  have  had  experience   since  they  have  been  under  the 


434  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

management  of  the  Interior  Department.  Now,  I  would 
like  to  know  your  opinion  as  to  which  of  these  Depart- 
ments is  qualified  to  take  care  and  have  general  control  of 
the  Indians.  A.  The  army  ;  there  is  no  doubt  about  that 
at  all.     There  cannot  be  any  stealing  in  the  army. 

Q.  From  your  knowledge  of  the  Indian  character,  do 
you  believe  that  those  people  are  to  be  controlled  in  any 
way  except  by  fear  of  punishment?  A.  Yes,  sir;  kind 
treatment  and  justice  can  do  it.  They  know  whsit  j/(stice  is. 
and  they  want  it.  If  they  are  treated  with  justice-  we  will 
never  have  any  trouble  with  them. 

Q.  Then  it  is  your  experience  that  the  trouble  grows  out 
of  the  stealing  of  their  annuity-goods  ?  A.  Yes,  sir,  prin- 
cipally ;  and  out  of  whisky-selling. 

Q.  How  can  you  prevent  the  introduction  of  whisky 
among  the  Indians  ?  A.  If  the  commanding  officer  is  worth 
a  cent  he  can  prevent  it. 

Q.  How  would  you  do  it?  A.  I  would  hang  the  whisky- 
sellers  or  shoot  them.  They  are  the  very  worst  class  of 
people  on  the  frontier. 

Q.  While  the  hanging  process  is  going  on,  would  it  not 
be  well  to  hang  the  men  who  steal  the  annuity-goods  too? 
A.  Decidedly. 

Q,  Was  he  an  ofificer  of  the  army?  A.  Oh,  no,  sir;  In- 
dian agents  are  generally  called  majors. 

Q.  Would  it  be  safe  to  arm  the  settlers  and  let  them 
take  care  of  the  frontiers  ?     A.   I  do  not  think  it  would. 

Q.  Do  you  think  if  you  could  rid  the  country  of  whisky- 
sellers  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  the  main?  A.  If 
you  do  that  and  do  j'ustice  to  the  Indians  at  the  same  time, 
you  will  have  no  trouble. 

Q.  As  between  fighting  them  and  giving  them  kind 
treatment,  which  would  you  say  was  the  preferable  course? 
A.  Kind  treatment  in  the  first  place;  then  if  we  comply 
with  our  treaty  stipulations,  we  will  have  no  difficulty  at  all 
with  them. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  as  to  the  policy  of  getting  them 
on  reservations,  and  taking  good  care  of  them  ?  A.I 
have  been  in  favor  of  it  always.  If  the  Indians  had  been 
treated  properly,  I  do  not  think  there  would  ever  have 
been  any  difficulty. 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  435 

Q.  State  whether,  in  your  opinion,  the  Government  now 
furnishes  supphes  enough  to  comply  with  the  treaties.  A. 
I  think  that  the  Government  does,  if  the  Indians  could  get 
them. 

Q.  Do  5'ou  think  that  the  Indians  are  now  getting  their 
full  supplies  under  the  treaties  ?  A.  I  cannot  say.  I  have 
been  on  the  retired  list  ten  or  twelve  years. 

Q.  Is  the  policy  of  justice  being  carried  out  or  not?  A. 
I  have  had  very  little  intercourse  with  the  Indians  lately, 
and  I  cannot  tell.  But  I  suppose  we  would  not  have  had 
so  much  trouble  with  them  if  we  had  done  them  justice. 

Q.  Hive  you  been  among  the  Indians  for  the  last  twelve 
years,  so  that,  frcm  your  personal  knowledge  of  Indian 
agents,  you  are  able  to  make  a  statement  as  to  their  hon- 
esty? A.  Yes;  after  I  was  placed  on  the  retired  list,  I 
was  kept  on  duty  for  three  or  four  years. 

Q.  Then,  for  the  last  eight  years,  since  the  Government 
peace  policy  has  been  carried  on,  you  have  had  no  personal 
knowledge  of  Indian  agents?  A.  Not  since  I  left  the  In- 
dian country,  and  that  was  in  1866  or  1868,  I  think. 

Q.  Then  your  statement  a  little  while  ago  that  the  In- 
dian agents  steal  did  not  apply  to  Indian  agents  within  the 
last  eight  years  ?  A.  I  did  not  mean  to  say  that  they  all 
steal ;  there  may  be  many  of  them  honest. 

Q.  But  you  meant  that  statement  to  have  reference  to  a 
period  prior  to  1868?     A.  Yes,  sir,  and  in  1868. 

Q.  You  were  a.  member  of  the  Indian  peace  commission 
in  1868?  A.  Yes,  sir;  I  am  not  positive  as  to  the  date;  it 
was  between  '66  and  '68,  I  believe. 

Q.  There  were  three  army  officers  on  that  commission 
besides  yourself?  A.  Yes,  sir ;  General  Sherman,  General 
Augur,  and  General  Terry. 

Q.  You  visited  the  Indian  country  during  the  time  you 
were  on  that  peace  commission?  Yes;  we  made  treaties 
with  them  in  different  places. 

Q.  From  the  investigations  that  you  made  at  that  time, 
did  you  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Indians  were  the 
wronged  parties,  or  that  the  wars  and  troubles  which  had 
arisen  with  the  Indians  were  caused  by  white  men  ?  A. 
Decidedly  so. 

Q.  What  was  that  affair? 


436  LIFE  OF  GENERAL   HARNEY. 

Q.  You  said  that  this  cow  had  given  out  and  had  been 
abandoned  ? 

Q.  From  your  investigations  on  this  peace  commission 
you  came  to  the  conclusion  that  our  Indian  wars  had 
resulted  from  outrages  perpetrated  upon  the  Indians  ?  A. 
I  think  I  would  be  safe  in  saying  that  nine  cases  in  ten.  I 
am  satisfied  that  if  the  Indians  were  to  receive  Justice  there 
would  be  no  trouble.  There  ought  to  be  some  way  of  pre- 
venting whisky-selling  out  of  the  Indian  country. 

Q.  Have  you  had  any  experience  with  Indian  tribes  be- 
yond the  Rocky  Mountains  ?  A.  I  was  sent  to  Washing- 
ton Territory  by  the  Government  to  pursue  the  Indians  of 
various  tribes.  It  was  thought  we  were  to  have  a  general 
Indian  war  with  them,  but  the  matter  was  settled  before  I 
arrived. 

O.  What  year  was  that?  A.  That  was  about  1858  or 
i860,  I  think. 

Q.  You  do  not  know  how  that  war  was  brought  on,  do 
you  ?     A.  No,  sir  ;  I  do  not. 

Q.  From  your  knowledge  of  the  facts  that  you  obtained 
after  you  arrived  in  the  country,  do  you  not  recollect  that 
it  was  through  the  murder  of  the  Indian  agent  by  the 
Indians  that  the  war  was  brought  on?  A.  I  forget  now  ; 
it  was  over  when  I  arrived  there.  I  was  sent  over  to  pun- 
ish them,  and  I  would  have  done  it.  Of  course  I  intended 
to  make  a  winter  campaign  against  them. 

Q.  The  question  has  come  up  as  to  the  kind  of  troops 
that  are  most  valuable  to  fight  against  the  Indians.  What  is 
your  judgment  as  to  that?  Is  infantry  needed  as  much  as 
cavalry,  or  can  cavalrybe  used  alone  against  the  Indians 
with  better  advantage  ?  A.  The  cavalry  alone  can  pursue 
them  and  catch  them. 

Q.  There  is  a  double  garrison  at  all  of  those  post  on  the 
frontier,  about  the  same  number  of  infantry  as  of  cavalr\'. 
and  some  question  has  been  raised  whether  as  much  infan- 
try as  cavalry  was  needed  at  those  frontier  posts.  A.  I 
think  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  have  some  infantry  at 
each  post. 

Q.  You  stated  a  moment  ago  that  you  wanted  army 
officers  to  take  charge  of  these  matters,  because  soldiers 
never  steal.     A.  I   mean  officers.     The   common   soldiers 


I 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  437 

have  nothing  to  do  with  it;  but  there  are  exceptions  of 
course  among  officers. 

Q.  Human  nature  is  so  much  the  same,  that,  removed 
from  the  restraints  of  civihzation  and  subjected  to  great 
temptation,  would  not  army  officers  and  Indian  agents  be 
pretty  much  on  the  same  level ;  that  is,  there  would  be 
exceptions  among  both  classes  ?  A.  Certainly,  but  proper 
officers  would  be  selected — it  cannot  be  so  with  agents. 

Q.  You  do  not  mean  to  admit  that  army  officers  Would 
be  as  liable  to  steal  as  Indian  agents  :  you  mean  to  stick 
to  what  you  said,  that  army  officers  would  be  better  dis- 
bursing agents  and  managers  than  Indian  agents  would  be  ? 
A.    Certainly. 

Q.  As  a  class,  are  they  more  honest  than  Indian  agents? 
A.   Why,  of  course. 

Q.  Is  your  comparison  with  Indian  agents  twenty  years 
ago  ?  A,  I  do  not  think  they  were  as  corrupt  then  as  they 
are  now. 

Q.  The  proposition  is  to  introduce  the  arts  of  civilized 
life  among  the  Indians;  to  reform  and  educate  them  ;  to 
teach  them  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts.  Do  you 
think  that  the  army  could  do  that  as  well  as  civil  employes 
of  the  government  ?  A.  If  the  army  officers  had  orders 
they  would  obey  them,  I  think. 

Q.  Do  you  think  that  they  would  be  as  well  qualified  to 
carry  out  that  branch  of  the  Indian  service  as  civilians  are? 
A.  They  would  not  act  as  teachers,  but  they  would  super- 
intend all  these  things,  and  they  would  do  it  better  than 
civilians,  because  they  would  have  no  interest  except  to  do 
their  duty. 

General  Harney  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Indian 
Peace  Commission  in  1865,  and  visited  the  Indians  for  the 
last  time  on  the  waters  of  the  Platte  River,  and  in  the 
region  of  the  Black  Hills.  On  the  return  of  the  Commis- 
sion to  St.  Louis,  General  Harney  was  given  carte  blanche 
authority  to  make  some  purchases  of  goods  for  the  Indians, 
and  in  the  absence  of  special  instructions  from  Washington 
he  proceeded  to  make  out  an  inventory  of  goods,  such  as 
he  had  decided  the  Indians  required,  and  made  the  pur- 
chases, amounting  to  near  ^i.ooo.ooo,  and  sent  them  away. 


438  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

The  authorities  at  Washington,  knowing  the  honor  and 
good  judgment  of  General  Harney,  approved  of  his  work 
and  paid  the  bills. 

While  in  council  at  the  Platte  bridge,  an  incident  of  note 
occurred.  Without  any  reference  to  the  deliberations,  an 
elderly  Indian  woman  passed  the  crowd,  and  on  reaching 
General  Harney,  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  shook  it  freely, 
and  said  to  the  General,  "  You  were  a  friend  of  my  father." 

The  General  was  unable  to  identify  her,  but  received  her 
greetings  with  satisfaction.  Meanwhile  the  entire  proceed- 
ings of  the  Commission  ceased  until  the  meeting  of  the 
old  war  chief  and  the  old  Indian  matron  ended. 

RELIGION,  TRADITIONS,  POETRY. 

It  has  been  said  that  man,  when  he  first  distinguished 
himself  from  the  animal,  was  religious ;  that  is  to  say,  he  saw 
something  beyond  reality,  and  for  himself  something  be- 
yond death.  This  feeling,  for  thousands  of  years,  wan- 
dered about  in  the  strangest  way.  With  many  races  it 
never  went  beyond  a  belief  in  sorceries,  in  the  crude  form 
in  which  we  still  find  it  in  certain  parts  of  Oceanica.  With 
some  the  religious  sentiment  culminated  in  the  shameful 
scenes  of  butchery  which  characterized  the  ancient  religion 
in  Mexico ;  with  others,  especially  in  Africa,  it  reached 
pure  fetishism,  or  the  adoration  of  a  natural  object  to  which 
were  attributed  supernatural  powers.  The  religions  of 
Babylonia  and  Syria  never  extricated  themselves  from  a 
basis  of  amazing  sensuality.  The  first  intentions  of  the 
Indo-European  race  were  essentially  naturalistic,  but  it  was 
a  deep  moral  naturalism,  a  loving  embrace  of  nature  by 
man,  a  delicious  poetry  full  of  the  feeling  of  the  Infinite, 
the  principle  of  all  that  German  and  Celtic  genius,  of  what 
a  Shakespeare,  of  what  a  Goethe  was  afterwards  to  ex- 
press. The  Greek  attempt  at  reform  did  not  suffice  to  give 
solid  aliment  to  souls.  Persia  alone  succeeded  in  forming 
a  religion  almost  monotheistic,  and  wisely  organized,  but 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  439 

Persia  did  not  convert  the  world.  She  was,  on  the  con- 
trary, converted  on  her  frontiers  to  the  banner  of  divine 
unity  proclaimed  by  Islam.  Far  beyond  the  confines  of 
history,  under  his  tent,  remaining  pure  from  the  disorders 
of  a  world  already  corrupt,  the  Bedouin  patriarch  prepared 
the  faith  of  the  world. 

When  we  come  to  try  the  North  American  Indian  by  our 
own  high  standard,  we  find  that  he  had  made  religious  ad- 
vances that  surprise  us.  He  had  almost  succeeded  in 
shaking  off  all  grossness  and  sensuality,  and  worshiped 
his  one  Great  Spirit  as  a  benignant  and  all-powerful 
creator.  When  the  Christian  scheme  was  unfolded  before 
him,  he  embraced  Christianity  with  childlike  purity  and 
trust.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  rapid  settlement  of  this 
country  by  the  whites,  it  is  quite  possible  that  they  might, 
as  a  race,  have  become  converted  to  Christianity,  and 
slowly  passed  from  the  barbarous  to  the  pastoral  state,  and 
eventually  have  become  an  agricultural  and  civilized 
Christian  people. 

HIAWATHA. 

The  distinctive  characteristics  of  Indian  thought  present 
themselves  in  all  their  purity  and  strength  in  the  legend  of 
Hiawatha.  He  was  to  the  Six  Nations  what  Moses  was  to 
the  Jews,  or  Confucius  to  the  Chinese.  He  may  even  have 
lived  before  the  time  of  Moses  and  been  a  contemporary  of 
Sanconiathon.  The  tradition,  which  was  strong  and  clear- 
cut,  was  gathered  from  the  verbal  narrations  of  Abraham 
Le  Fort,  an  Onandaga  chief,  who  was  a  graduate  of  Geneva 
College,  as  follows : 

Tarenyawago  taught  the  Six  Nations  arts  and  knowl- 
edge. He  had  a  canoe  which  would  move  without  pad- 
dles. It  was  only  necessary  to  will  it  to  compel  it  to  go. 
He  taught  the  people  to  raise  corn  and  beans,  removed 
obstructions  from  their  water  courses,  and  made  their  fish- 
ing grounds  clear.     He  helped  them  to  get  the  mastery 


440  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

over  the  great  monsters  which  overran  the  country,  and  so 
prepared  the  forests  for  the  hunters.  His  wisdom  was  as 
great  as  his  power,  and  the  people  listened  to  him  with 
admiration  and  followed  his  advice  gladly.  There  was 
nothing  in  which  he  did  not  excel  good  hunters,  brave  war- 
riors and  eloquent  orators. 

He  gave  them  wise  instruction  for  observing  the  laws 
and  maxims  of  the  Great  Spirit,  Having  done  these  things, 
he  laid  aside  the  high  powers  of  his  public  mission  and  re- 
solved to  set  them  an  example  of  how  they  should  live. 
For  this  purpose  he  selected  a  beautiful  spot  on  the  shore 
of  a  small  lake,  which  is  still  called  Tioto  (Cross  Lake). 
Here  he  erected  his  lodge,  planted  his  field  of  corn,  kept 
by  him  his  magic  canoe,  and  selected  a  wife. 

In  relinquishing  his  former  position  as  a  subordinate 
power  to  the  Great  Spirit,  he  also  dropped  his  name  and 
took  that  of  Hiawatha,  meaning  a  person  of  very  great 
wisdom,  which  the  people  spontaneously  bestowed  upon 
him. 

When  Hiawatha  assumed  the  duties  of  an  individual  at 
Tioto,  he  drew  out  of  the  water  his  beautiful  talismanic 
canoe,  which  he  never  used  except  on  journeys  to  attend 
the  general  councils.  He  had  been  elected  to  become  a 
member  of  the  Onondaga  tribe,  and  chose  the  residence  of 
this  people  in  their  fruitful  valley. 

After  the  termination  of  his  higher  mission  from  above, 
years  passed  away  in  prosperity,  and  the  Onondagas  as- 
sumed an  elevated  rank  for  their  wisdom  and  learing  among 
the  other  tribes,  and  there  was  not  one  of  these  that  did 
not  yield  its  assent  to  their  high  privilege  of  lighting  the 
general  council  fire. 

Suddenly  there  arose  a  great  alarm  at  the  invasion  of  a 
ferocious  band  of  warriors  from  north  of  the  Great  Lakes. 
As  they  advanced  an  indiscriminate  slaughter  was  made  of 
men,  women  and  children.  Destruction  threatened  to  be 
alike  the  fate  of  those  who  boldly  resisted  or  quietly  sub- 


.    THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  44I 

niitted.  The  public  alarm  was  extreme.  Hiawatha  ad- 
vised them  not  to  waste  their  efforts  in  a  desultory  manner, 
but  to  call  a  general  council  of  all  the  tribes  that  could  be 
gathered  together  from  the  east  to  the  west,  and  he  ap- 
pointed the  meeting  to  take  place  on  the  banks  of  the 
Onondaga  Lake. 

Accordingly  all  the  chief  men  assembled  at  this  spot. 
The  occasion  brought  together  vast  multitudes  of  men, 
women  and  children,  for  there  was  an  expectation  of  some 
great  deliverance.  Three  days  had  already  elapsed,  and 
there  began  to  be  a  general  anxiety  lest  Hiawatha  should 
not  arrive.  Messengers  were  despatched  for  him  to  Tioto, 
who  found  him  in  a  pensive  mood,  to  whom  he  communi- 
cated his  strong  presentiments  that  evil  betided  his  attend- 
ance. These  were  overruled  by  the  strong  representations 
of  the  messengers,  and  he  again  put  his  wonderful  vessel  in 
its  element,  and  set  out  for  the  council,  taking  his  only 
daughter  with  him.  She  timidly  took  her  seat  in  the  stern 
with  a  light  paddle,  to  give  direction  to  the  vessel ;  for  the 
strength  of  the  current  of  the  Seneca  River  was  sufficient 
to  give  velocity  to  the  motion  till  arriving  at  So-ha-hi,  the 
Onondaga  outlet.  At  this  point  the  powerful  exertions  of 
the  aged  chief  were  required  till  they  entered  on  the  bright 
bosom  of  the  Onondaga. 

The  grand  council  that  was  to  avert  the  threatened  dan- 
ger, was  quickly  in  sight,  and  sent  up  shouts  of  welcome 
as  the  venerated  man  approached  and  landed  in  front  of 
the  assemblage.  An  ascent  led  up  the  banks  of  the  lake 
to  the  place  occupied  by  the  council.  As  he  walked  up 
this,  a  loud  sound  was  heard  in  the  air  above,  as  if  caused 
by  some  rushing  current  of  wind.  Instantly  the  eyes  of  all 
were  directed  upward  to  the  sky,  where  a  spot  of  matter 
was  discovered  descending  rapidly,  and  every  instant  en- 
larging in  its  size  and  velocity.  Terror  and  alarm  were  the 
first  impulses,  for  it  appeared  to  be  descending  into  their 
midst,  and  they  scattered  in  confusion. 


442  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Hiawatha,  as  soon  as  he  had  gained  the  eminence,  stood 
still,  and  caused  his  daughter  to  do  the  same  ;  deeming  it 
cowardly  to  fly,  and  impossible,  if  it  were  attempted,  to 
divert  the  designs  of  the  Great  Spirit. 

The  descending  object  had  now  assumed  a  more  definite 
aspect,  and  as  it  came  do.vn,  revealed  the  shape  of  a  gigan- 
tic white  bird,  with  wide,  extended  and  pointed  wings, 
which  came  down  swifter  and  swifter,  with  a  mighty  swoop, 
and  crushed  the  girl  to  the  earth.  Not  a  muscle  was 
moved  in  the  face  of  Hiawatha.  His  daughter  lay  dead 
before  him,  but  the  great  and  mysterious  white  bird  was 
also  destroyed  by  the  shock.  Such  had  been  the  violence 
of  the  concussion,  that  it  had  completely  buried  its  beak 
and  head  in  the  ground.  But  the  most  wonderful  sight  was 
the  carcass  of  the  prostrated  bird,  which  was  covered  with 
beautiful  plumes  of  snow-white,  shining  feathers.  Each 
warrior  stepped  up  and  decorated  himself  with  a  plume. 
And  hence  it  became  a  custom  to  assume  this  kind  of 
feathers  on  the  war-path.  Succeeding  generations  substi- 
tuted the  plumes  of  the  white  heron,  which  led  this  bird  to 
be  greatly  esteemed. 

But  yet  a  greater  wonder  ensued.  On  removing  the 
carcass  of  the  bird,  not  a  human  trace  could  be  discovered 
of  the  daughter ;  she  had  completely  vanished.  At  this 
the  father  was  greatly  afflicted  in  spirit,  and  disconsolate, 
but  he  roused  himself,  as  from  a  lethargy,  and  walked  to 
the  head  of  the  council  with  a  dignified  air,  covered  with 
a  simple  robe  of  wolf-skins ;  taking  his  seat  with  the  chief 
warriors  and  counsellors,  and  listening  with  attentive 
gravity  to  the  plans  of  the  different  speakers.  One  day 
was  given  to  these  discussions ;  on  the  next  day  he  arose 
and  said  :  "  My  friends  and  brothers :  You  are  members  of 
many  tribes,  and  have  come  from  a  great  distance.  We 
have  met  to  promote  the  common  interest,  and  our  safety. 
How  shall  it  be  accomplished  ?  To  oppose  these  Northern 
hordes  in  tribes  singly,  while  we  are  at  variance  often  with 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  443 

each  other,  is  impossible.  By  uniting  in  a  common  band 
of  brotherhood,  we  may  hope  to  succeed.  Let  this  be 
done,  and  we  shall  drive  the  enemy  from  our  land.  Listen 
to  me,  my  tribes. 

"  You  (the  Mohawks),  who  are  sitting  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Great  Tree,  whose  roots  sink  deep  in  the  earth,  and 
whose  branches  spread  wide  around,  shall  be  the  first 
nation  because  you  are  warlike  and  mighty. 

"  You  (the  Oneidas),  who  recline  your  bodies  against  the 
everlasting  stone  that  cannot  be  moved,  shall  be  the  second 
nation,  because  you  always  give  wise  counsel. 

"  You  (the  Onondagas),  who  have  your  habitation  at  the 
foot  of  the  great  hills,  and  are  overshadowed  by  their  crags, 
shall  be  the  third  nation,  because  you  are  all  greatly  gifted 
in  speech. 

"  You  (the  Senecas),  whose  dwelling  is  in  the  Dark 
Forest,  and  whose  home  is  everywhere,  shall  be  the  fourth 
nation,  because  of  your  superior  cunning  in  hunting. 

"  And  you  (the  Cayugas),  the  people  who  live  in  the  open 
country,  and  possess  much  wisdom,  shall  be  the  fifth 
nation,  because  you  understand  better  the  art  of  raising 
corn  and  beans,  and  making  houses. 

"  Unite,  you  five  nations,  and  have  one  common  interest, 
and  no  foe  shall  disturb  or  subdue  you.  You,  the  people 
who  are  as  the  feeble  bushes,  and  you,  who  are  a  fishing 
people,  may  place  yourselves  under  our  protection,  and  we 
will  defend  you.  And  you,  of  the  South  and  of  the  West, 
may  do  the  same,  and  we  will  protect  you.  We  earnestly 
desire  the  alliance  and  friendship  of  you  all. 

"  Brothers,  if  we  unite  in  this  great  bond,  the  Great 
Spirit  will  smile  upon  us,  and  we  shall  be  free,  prosperous 
and  happy.  But  if  we  remain  as  we  are,  we  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  his  frown.  We  shall  be  enslaved,  ruined,  perhaps 
annihilated.  We  may  perish  under  the  war-storm,  and  our 
names  be  no  longer  remembered  by  good  men,  nor  be 
reoeated  in  the  dance  song. 


/j/|/|  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

"  Brothers,  these  are  the  words  of  Hiawatha.  I  have 
said  it.     I  am  done." 

The  next  day  the  plan  of  union  was  again  considered, 
and  adopted  by  the  council.  Conceiving  this  to  be  the  ac- 
complishment of  his  mission  to  the  Iroquois,  the  tutelar 
patron  of  this  rising  confederacy  addressed  them  in  a 
speech,  elaborate  with  wise  counsels,  and  then  announced 
his  withdrawal  to  the  skies.  At  its  conclusion  he  went 
down  to  the  shore,  and  assumed  his  seat  in  his  mystical 
vessel.  Sweet  music  was  heard  in  the  air  at  the  same  mo- 
ment, and  its  cadence  floated  in  the  ears  of  the  wondering 
multitude  ;  it  rose  in  the  air,  higher  and  higher  till  it  van- 
ished from  the  sight,  and  disappeared  in  the  celestial 
regions  inhabited  only  by  Owayneo  and  his  hosts. 

This  story  of  the  origin  and  mission  of  Hiawatha  may 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  narratives  to  be 
found  in  pre-historic  romance ;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  no 
little  concern  to  the  American  people  that  the  greatest  part 
of  the  new  world  has  regaled  this  story  with  more  classic 
beauty  and  lifted  it  to  a  higher  place  in  literature  than  was 
ever  given  to  Grecian,  Roman  or  Icelandic  mythology. 

And  if  we  are  to  believe  the  tradition,  the  mission  of 
Hiawatha  was  more  important,  of  wider  range,  of  more 
varied  use,  than  ever  before  discharged  by  Egyptian,  Per- 
sian, Jewish,  Grecian  or  Roman  teacher  or  benefactor,  and 
when  contrasted  with  these,  well  may  the  savage  hunter, 
taught  by  Hiawatha,  say,  in  reference  to  the  life  of  the  pale 
faces : 

"  I  hate  these  classic  walls, 
I  hate  the  Grecian  poet's  song." 

The  departure  of  Hiawatha  from  his  people,  after  having 
filled  so  important  a  mission,  is  so  full  of  suggestion  and 
thought  for  civilized  man,  that  we  give  place  to  Long- 
fellow to  describe  this  great  event: 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  445r 

"  Forth  into  the  village  went  he, 
Bade  farewell  to  all  the  warriors, 
Bade  farewell  to  all  the  young  men. 
Spake  persuading,  spake  in  this  wise: 

'I  am  going,  O  my  people, 
On  a  long  and  distant  journey ; 
Many  moons  and  many  winters 
Will  have  come,  and  will  have  vanished, 
Ere  I  come  again  to  see  you. 
But  my  guests  I  leave  behind  me ; 
Listen  to  their  words  of  wisdom. 
Listen  to  the  truth  they  tell  you, 
For  the  Master  of  Life  has  sent  them 
From  the  land  of  light  and  morning  ! ' 

On  the  shore  stood  Hiawatha, 
Turned  and  waved  his  hand  at  parting ; 
On  the  clear  and  luminous  water 
Launched  his  birch  canoe  for  sailing, 
From  the  pebbles  of  the  margin 
Shoved  it  forth  into  the  water ; 
Whispered  to  it,  '  Westward !    westward ! ' 
And  with  speed  it  darted  forward. 

And  the  evening  sun  descending 
Set  the  clouds  on  fire  with  redness, 
Burned  the  broad  sky,  like  a  prairie, 
Left  upon  the  level  water 
One  long  track  and  trail  of  splendor, 
Down  whose  stream,  as  down  a  river, 
Westward,  westward  Hiawatha 
Sailed  into  the  fiery  sunset, 
Sailed  into  the  purple  vapors, 
Sailed  into  the  dusk  of  evening. 

And  the  people  from  the  margin 
Watched  him  floating,  rising,  sinking, 
Till  the  birch  canoe  seemed  lifted 
High  into  that  sea  of  splendor, 
Till  it  sank  into  the  vapors 
Like  the  new  moon  slowly,  slowly 
Sinking  in  the  purple  distance.  " 

Hiawatha  had  finished  his  work  among  his  people  below, 
and  henceforth  there  was  for  him  a  crown  laid  up  in  the 
island  of  the  blessed,  the  legend  of  which  follows. 

Where  do  we  find  among  savages  a  more  beautiful  and 
pure-minded  allegory  than  in  the  legend  of 


446  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

THE  ISLAND  OF  THE  BLESSED;    OR  THE  HUNTEr's  DREAM? 

There  wais  once  a  beautiful  girl,  who  died  suddenly  on 
the  day  she  was  to  have  been  married  to  a  handsome  young 
hunter.  He  had  also  proved  his  bravery  in  war,  sa  that  he 
enjoyed  the  praises  of  his  tribe,  but  his  heart  was  not  proof 
against  this  loss.  From  the  hour  she  was  buried  there  was 
no  more  joy  or  peace  for  him.  He  went  often  to  visit  the 
spot  where  her  people  had  buried  her,  and  sat  musing 
there  when  it  was  thought  by  some  of  his  friends  he  would 
have  done  better  to  have  tried  to  amuse  himself  in  the 
chase  or  diverted  himself  in  the  war-path.  But  war  and 
hunting  had  lost  their  charms  for  him.  His  heart  was 
already  dead.  He  wholly  neglected  both  his  war-clubs  and 
his  bows  and  arrows. 

He  had  heard  old  people  say  there  was  a  path  that  led 
to  the  land  of  souls,  and  he  determined  to  follow  it.  He 
set  out  one  morning,  after  making  preparations  for  his  jour- 
ney, and  being  guided  by  tradition  solely,  knew  that  he 
must  go  south.  For  a  time  he  could  see  no  change  in  the 
face  of  the  country.  Forests  and  streams  and  valleys  had 
the  same  look  that  they  wore  in  his  native  place.  There 
was  snow  on  the  ground  when  he  set  out,  and  it  was  some- 
times seen  to  be  piled  and  matted  on  the  thick  trees  and 
bushes.  At  length  it  began  to  diminish,  and  as  he  walked 
on  finally  disappeared.  The  forest  assumed  a  more  cheer- 
ful appearance,  the  leaves  put  forth  their  buds,  and  before 
he  was  aware  of  the  completeness  of  the  change  he  found 
he  had  left  behind  him  the  land  of  snow  and  ice.  The  air 
became  pure  and  mild,  the  dark  clouds  rolled  away  from 
the  sky,  a  pure  field  of  blue  was  above  him,  and  as  he  went 
forward  on  his  journey  he  saw  flowers  beside  his  path  and 
heard  the  song  of  birds.  By  these  signs  he  knew  that  he 
was  going  the  right  way,  for  they  agreed  with  the  tradi- 
tions of  his  tribe.  At  length  he  spied  a  path.  It  took  him 
through  a  grove  and  then  up  a  long  and  elevated  ridge,  on 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.  447 

the  very  top  of  which  he  came  to  a  lodge.  At  the  door 
stood  an  old  man  with  white  hair,  whose  eyes,  though 
deeply  sunk,  had  a  fiery  brilliancy.  He  had  a  long  roll  of 
skins  thrown  over  his  shoulders  and  a  staff  in  his  hands. 

The  young  man  began  to  tell  his  story,  but  the  venerable 
chief  arrested  him  before  he  had  proceeded  to  speak  ten 
words.  "  I  have  expected  you,"  he  replied,  "  and  had 
just  risen  to  welcome  you  to  my  abode.  She  whom  you 
seek  passed  here  but  a  short  time  since,  and,  being  fatigued 
with  her  journey,  rested  herself  here.  Enter  my  lodge  and 
be  seated,  and  I  will  then  satisfy  your  inquiries  and  give 
you  directions  for  your  journey  from  this  point."  Having 
done  this,  and  refreshed  himself  by  rest,  they  both  issued 
forth  from  the  lodge  door.  "  You  see  yonder  gulf,"  said 
the  old  man,  "  and  a  wide  stretching  plain  beyond :  it  is 
the  land  of  souls.  You  stand  upon  its  borders,  and  my 
lodge  is  the  gate  of  entrance.  But  you  cannot  take  your 
body  along.  Leave  it  here  with  your  bow  and  arrows, 
your  bundle  and  your  dog.  You  will  find  them  safe  on 
your  return."  So  saying,  he  re-entered  the  lodge,  and  the 
freed  traveler  bounded  forward  as  if  his  feet  had  suddenly 
been  endowed  with  the  power  of  wings.  But  all  things 
retained  their  natural  colors  and  shapes.  The  woods  and 
trees  and  leaves,  and  streams  and  lakes,  were  only  more 
bright  and  comely  than  he  had  ever  witnessed.  Animals 
bounded  across  his  path  with  a  freedom  and  confidence 
that  seemed  to  tell  him  there  was  no  blood  shed  there. 
Birds  of  beautful  plumage  inhabited  the  groves  and  sported 
in  the  waters.  There  was  but  one  thing  in  which  he  saw  a 
very  unusual  effect.  He  noticed  that  his  passage  was  not 
stopped  by  trees  or  other  objects.  He  seemed  to  walk 
directly  through  them.  They  were  in  fact  but  the  images 
or  shadows  of  material  forms.  He  became  sensible  that  he 
was  in  the  land  of  souls. 

When  he  had  traveled  half  a  day's  journey  through  a 
country  which  was  continually  becoming   more   attractive. 


448  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

he  came  to  the  banks  of  a  broad  lake  in  which  was  a  large 
and  beautiful  island.  He  found  a  canoe  of  white  shining 
stone  tied  to  the  shore.  He  was  now  sure  he  had  come  to 
the  right  path,  for  the  aged  man  told  him  of  this.  There 
were  also  shining  paddles.  He  immediately  entered  the 
canoe  and  took  the  paddles  in  his  hands,  when,  to  his  joy 
and  surprise,  on  turning  around,  he  beheld  the  object  of  his 
search  in  another  canoe,  exactly  its  counterpart  in  every 
thing.  It  seemed  to  be  the  shadow  of  his  own.  She  had 
exactly  imitated  his  motions,  and  they  were  side  by  side. 
They  at  once  pushed  out  from  the  shore  and  began  to  cross 
the  lake.  Its  waves  seemed  to  be  rising,  and  at  a  distance 
looked  ready  to  swallow  them  up,  but  just  as  they  en- 
tered the  whitened  edge  of  them  they  seemed  to  melt 
away  as  if  they  were  but  the  images  of  waves.  But  no 
sooner  was  one  wreath  of  foam  passed  than  another,  more 
threatening  still,  rose  up.  Thus  they  were  in  perpetual 
fear,  but  what  added  to  it  was  the  clearness  of  the  water 
through  which  they  could  see  heaps  of  the  bones  of  beings 
who  had  perished  before. 

The  Master  of  Life  had,  however,  decreed  to  let  them 
pass,  for  the  thoughts  and  acts  of  neither  of  them  had 
been  bad.  But  they  saw  many  others  struggling  and  sink- 
ing in  the  waves.  Old  men  and  young  men,  males  and 
females  of  all  ages  and  ranks  were  there  ;  some  passed  and 
some  sank.  It  was  only  the  little  children  whose  canoes 
seemed  to  meet  no  waves.  At  length  every  difficulty  was 
gone  as  in  a  moment,  and  they  both  leaped  out  on  the 
happy  island.  They  felt  that  the  very  air  was  food.  It 
strengthened  and  nourished  them.  They  wandered  to- 
gether over  the  blissful  fields,  where  everything  was  formed 
to  please  the  eye  and  the  ear.  There  were  no  tempests, 
there  was  no  ice  nor  chilly  winds,  no  one  shivered  for  the 
want  of  warm  clothes,  no  one  suffered  from  hunger,  no  one 
mourned  for  the  dead.  They  saw  no  graves,  they  heard  of 
no  wars.     Animals  ran  freely  about,  for  there  was  no  blood 


THE  AMERICAN  IiNDIAN.  449 

spilled  in  hunting  them,  for  the  air  itself  nourished  them. 
Gladly  would  the  young  warrior  have  remained  there  for- 
ever, but  he  was  obliged  to  go  back  for  his  body.  He  did 
not  see  the  Master  of  Life,  but  he  heard  a  voice,  as  if  it 
were  a  soft  breeze.  "  Go  back,"  said  the  voice,  "to  the 
land  whence  you  came.  Your  time  has  not  yet  come.  The 
duties  for  which  I  made  you,  and  which  you  are  to  per- 
form, are  not  yet  finished.  Return  to  your  people  and 
accomplish  the  acts  of  a  good  man.  You  will  be  the  ruler 
of  your  tribe  for  many  days.  The  rules  you  are  to  observe 
will  be  told  you  by  my  messenger,  who  keeps  the  gate ; 
when  he  surrenders  back  your  body,  he  will  tell  you  what 
to  do.  Listen  to  him  and  you  shall  afterwards  rejoin  the 
spirit  you  have  followed,  but  whom  you  must  now  leave 
behind.  She  is  accepted  and  will  be  ever  here  as  young 
and  as  happy  as  she  was  when  I  first  called  her  from  the 
land  of  snows."  When  this  voice  ceased  the  narrator 
awoke.  It  was  the  fancy-work  of  a  dream,  and  he  was 
still  in  the  bitter  land  of  snows  and  hunger,  death  and 
tears. 


2D 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

RECOLLECTIONS,  CONCLUSIONS,  AND    INCIDENTS. 

-VENERAL  HARNEY  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous, 
I  -1-  as  he  is  also  one  of  the  most  interesting  monuments 
^^  of  the  military  history  of  our  country  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  His  military  life  began  at 
a  time  when  daring  pirates  infested  the  waters  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  when  the  peninsula  of  Florida 
was  still  a  Spanish  possession,  and  when  civilization  was 
struggling  against  barbarism,  far  to  the  eastward  of  the 
great  river.  At  the  Centennial  anniversary  of  American 
Independence,  the  military  achievements  of  our  citizens 
may  properly  and  naturally  be  divided  into  three  periods, 
each  distinctly  marked,  and  each  guided  by  men  of  dif- 
ferent schools  of  thought  and  of  action.  The  first  period, 
which  covers  the  Revolution  and  the  subsequent  struggle 
which  the  initial  force  of  its  policy  led  up  to,  was  con- 
trolled by  men  collected  from  all  nations,  and  from  every 
avocation.  A  great  idea  had  but  one  field  upon  which.it 
could  find  a  satisfactory  solution,  and  the  genius  of  the 
world  was  collected  upon  our  shores  to  give  embodiment 
to  the  darling  hope  of  centuries.  All  were  earnest,  most 
were  heroic ;  yet  they  became  congruous  only  through  the 
unity  of  a  thought  to  which  recorded  history  has  furnished 
no  parallel.  They  were  all  patriots,  and  some  of  them  were 
soldiers.  They  organized  such  forces  as  they  could  com- 
mand, and  our  Republic  was  the  fruit  of  their  devotion. 
On  occasions  when  their  skill  might  have  been  questioned, 
the  purity  of  their  motives  silenced  all  criticism.  Their 
services  have  crystallized  into  history,  which  it  is  our  most 
pleasant  duty  to  preserve  and  honor. 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  451 

In  the  second  period,  our  military  operations  were  di- 
rected by  professional  soldiers.  The  early  heroes,  profiting 
by  their  own  experience  and  the  teachings  of  history,  were 
the  founders  of  a  system  under  which  the  flower  of  the 
youth  of  the  Republic  were  educated  to  the  profession  of 
arms.  The  system  was  one  which  all  human  experience 
approved,  and  one  for  which  no  adequate  substitute  can 
ever  be  devised.  It  gave  to  the  nation  a  body  of  officers 
skilled  in  the  science  and  art  of  war,  whose  habits  of 
thought,  accuracy  of  judgment,  and  promptness  of  action, 
made  them  in  a  very  considerable  measure  the  counsellors 
of  statesmen,  as  they  were  also  the  custodians  of  the  na- 
tional honor.  Entirely  divorced  from  the  operations  of 
trade  and  the  machinery  of  politics  by  their  education, 
their  life  and  their  ambitions,  their  judgment  was  not  warped 
by  any  of  the  considerations  which  are  so  potent  in  civil 
life.  Beneath  each  uniform  was  the  heart  of  a  paladin  in 
action,  of  an  unselfish  intelligence  in  council.  To  the  sys- 
tem rather  than  the  individuals  that  composed  it,  are  to  be 
attributed  the  peculiarities  presented  by  its  members. 

These  are  the  men  who  in  our  army  and  navy  carried 
the  flag  of  the  nation  with  honor;  who  in  general  applied, 
when  they  did  not  direct,  the  policy  of  our  intercourse  with 
the  nations  of  the  old  world,  and  our  neighbors  in  this. 
They  were  frequently  called  upon  to  decide  nice  questions 
of  diplomacy  and  international  law,  in  situations  where 
blunders  would  have  magnified  into  crimes;  yet  the  uni- 
formly high  character  of  those  decisions  is  a  proper  sub- 
ject for  national  pride.  Our  intercourse  with  the  Indians, 
whether  friendly  or  hostile,  was  almost  entirely  in  their 
hands;  and  when  exceptionally  not  so,  it  was  a  matter  of 
regret.  They  faced  the  brave  aborigines  of  North  America 
for  half  a  century — a  people  of  keen  discernment  and  the 
highest  genius  for  war  that  has  been  developed  by  any 
native  race  in  the  world.  Using  force  with  prudence,  }'et 
preferring  conciliation  when  it  did   not  conflict  with  justice, 


452  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

they  commanded  the  respect  and  admiration  of  their  ene- 
mies, as  well  as  of  their  own  people.  Their  picket  line  on 
the  frontier  was  the  protection  of  civilization  against  the 
vengeance  of  the  Indians  and  the  rapacity  of  the  Mexicans. 

This,  the  second  period  of  our  military  history,  may  be 
said  to  have  ended  with  the  opening  of  the  civil  war.  New 
men,  with  questionable  claims  to  preferment,  were  placed 
in  command  of  men,  simply  because  armies  were  too 
numerous  to  be  officered  by  professional  soldiers.  Politics 
and  intrigue  united  also  with  military  reasons  in  shaping  a 
military  policy.  Armies  were  formed  in  which  men  and 
officers  were  equally  ignorant  of  the  business  of  war,  and 
it  took  time  to  acquire  that  discipline  which  alone  can  make 
valor  formidable  to  civilized  man. 

It  is  with  the  second  of  these  periods  that  General  Har- 
ney is  identified.  For  nearly  half  a  century  he  wore  his 
country's  uniform,  and  through  all  bore  himself  with 
dignity  and  distinguished  honor  and  ability.  His  record 
has  already  passed  into  history  with  the  period  to  which  it 
belongs,  and  is  now,  so  far  as  it  goes,  secure  from  the  dan- 
ger of  being  misunderstood. 

The  long  and  active  life  which  he  has  led  has  brought 
him  into  more  or  less  intimate  association  with  many  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  distinguished  men  and  women  of  Amer- 
ica and  Europe,  and  the  recollections  of  these  associations 
furnish  a  pleasing  solace  to  the  meditation  of  the  veteran 
soldier.  He  began  camp  life  with  Jackson  and  Jesup  for 
his  earliest  friends.  Jackson  was  then  at  the  height  of  his 
splendid  military  fame,  and  was  interested  and  pleased  with 
the  dash  and  enthusiasm  of  his  favorite  protege,  whom  he 
had  known  from  his  childhood.  Harney  in  turn  recipro- 
cated the  friendship  and  love  of  his  patron,  and  looked  up 
to  him  as  a  model  for  emulation. 

General  Jesup,  who  had  been  struck  by  the  soldierly 
bearing  of  the  youth,  and  who  had  procured  his  commis- 
sion  for  him   without  solicitation  and  while  he  was   on  a 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  453 

visit  at  Baton  Rouge,  was  also  an  object  of  his  sincere 
attachment.  A  few  years  later  when  the  two  faced  com- 
mon dangers  in  the  everglades  and  swamps  of  Florida, 
where  savage  foes  lurked  in  every  thicket,  and  where  many 
bloody  battles  were  fought,  this  attachment  grew  stronger, 
and  still  remains  undimmed  in  General  Harney's  breast. 
General  Gaines,  who  was  a  professional  soldier  before  this 
century  commenced,  and  a  man  who  won  every  step  of  his 
promotion,  was  one  of  his  friends,  and  he  served  in  the 
military  family  of  that  officer  as  an  aid-de-camp  for  some 
time.  The  relations  between  Harney  and  General  Har- 
rison were  also  of  the  most  intimate  character.  Although 
the  relations  between  Harney  and  General  Scott  never 
partook  of  personal  regard  and  were  sometimes  marked  by 
bitterness.  General  Scott  often  committed  to  his  charge 
some  of  the  most  important  duties  on  the  battle-field,  and 
promptly  recognized  his  services  in  a  public  manner.  On 
the  other  hand,  General  Harney,  waiving  all  questions  of 
personal  matters,  was  ever  outspoken  in  bearing  testimony 
to  the  high  soldierly  qualities  and  abilities  of  Scott. 

He  and  Taylor  were  good  friends.  In  1821  he  met  La- 
fitte  in  New  Orleans.  Although  there  was  no  personal 
acquaintance,  they  had  learned  to  know  each  other,  and 
the  amnested  freebooter  was  perfectly  aware  that  Harney 
had  dealt  him  a  hard  blow  in  capturing  some  vessels  be- 
longing to  his  men.  On  passing  in  the  streets  in  New  Or- 
leans, they  would  eye  each  other,  and  sometimes,  when  at 
a  distance,  would  be  seen  to  turn  and  look  back.  There 
was  manifestly  a  spirit  of  jealousy  between  the  two,  and 
something  of  a  feeling  of  regret  that  hostilities  were  closed; 
something,  too,  of  that  rivalry  and  pride  with  which  two 
mastiffs  survey  each  other  when  they  rush  to  the  contest 
for  supremacy.  The  ex-pirate  chief  was  a  hero  among  his 
friends,  who  thought  his  record  a  worthy,  as  well  as  a 
heroic  one.  When  at  this  distance  we  look  back  calmly 
on    Lafitte's   career  and  strip  it  as  well  as  we  can  from  the 


454  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Stigma  cast  upon  it  by  enemies,  and  the  false  coloring  of 
friends,  and  consider  the  chaotic  condition  of  nationali- 
ties on  this  continent  and  the  fashion  for  privateering, 
which,  in  many  cases,  was  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  even 
by  courtly  eyes  from  piracy,  we  see  that  the  odium  heaped 
upon  Lafitte  is  not  deserved.  His  virtues  were  at  least 
equal  to  his  crimes,  if  such  they  were;  his  faults  were  those 
of  that  age,  and  were  not  as  debasing  as  rigid  moralists 
would  now  have  us  believe.  His  family  had  suffered  se- 
verely from  the  cruelty  and  rapacity  of  Spanish  power  and 
Spanish  rule.  He  was  a  Frenchman,  and  Spain  was  his 
personal  enemy,  made  so  by  persecutions  of  his  family, 
which  he  resolved  in  early  life  to  resent  in  his  manhood. 
It  is  true  that  he  made  American  waters  and  American  soil 
a  place  of  refuge  and  a  vantage  ground  from  which  to 
strike  his  heaviest  blows  and  to  satisfy  his  unquenchable 
hatred,  yet  by  his  friends  he  is  said  to  have  possessed  the 
devotion  of  the  patriot,  the  ardor  of  the  warrior,  the  fidelity 
of  the  friend,  the  loyalty  and  truth  of  the  man  of  honor. 

Another  man  who  was  a  warm  friend  of  Harney,  and 
with  whom  he  was  for  a  time  associated  in  his  dealings  with 
the  Indians,  was  that  distinguished  divine,  Rev.  P.  J. 
Uc  Smet,  S.  J.  Father  De  Smet  commanded  more  respect 
and  love  among  the  Indians  than  any  other  divine  of  this 
century.  His  labors  had  been  constant  and  extended 
among  them,  and  he  spoke  their  various  dialects  with  facility. 
He  was  with  them  in  their  daily  life,  and  had  shared  their 
privations  and  their  joys.  They  looked  up  to  him  as  a 
friend  and  benefactor,  and  he  sought  their  good  by  every 
means  which  his  superior  learning  and  knowledge  of  the 
world  made  available.  Long  before  General  Harney  made 
his  expedition  to  the  Black  Hills  Father  De  Smet  had  lived 
there  with  the  Indians.  On  one  occasion  while  there  an 
incident  occurred  which  displayed  the  Christian  spirit  of 
the  man.  An  Indian  girl  brought  him  a  bright,  yellow 
pebble  about   the   size   of  a  quail's  egg,  and   very  heavy^ 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  455 

which  she  found  in  the  bed  of  a  stream,  and  asked  him 
what  it  was.  As  soon  as  the  Father  weighed  it  in  his 
hand,  he  said  to  her  and  a  few  other  wonderers  who  stood 
around,  in  the  Sioux  dialect : 

"  My  daughters,  that  is  the  white  man's  money.  There  is  nothing  in  this 
world  the  white  n>an  loves  so  much  as  he  does  that ;  for  its  possession  he  will 
go  on  long  journeys,  where  his  feet  have  never  trod  before ;  he  will  be  brave, 
and  risk  his  life  for  it ;  no  dangers  will  stop  him  from  going  where  he  thinks  it 
can  be  found ;  for  it  he  makes  peace  and  he  makes  war  ;  with  it  he  buys  every- 
thing he  needs  or  desires ;  it  brings  him  fine  houses  and  horses,  and  all  he 
wishes  to  eat  or  to  wear.  He  must  never  know  you  found  this  shining  pebble 
here;  you  must  never  tell  where  or  how  you  got  it.  If  you  do  the  white  man 
will  hear  of  it,  and  they  will  come  in  like  the  grasshopper  clouds,  and  take 
your  beautiful  country  from  you." 

This  is  the  utterance  of  a  man  who,  born  a  nobleman  in 
the  land  where  wealth  and  honors  are  coveted,  he  had 
abandoned  the  honors  and  fortune  of  his  inheritance,  and 
with  the  cross  and  without  scrip  had  directed  his  steps  to 
the  new  world  to  devote  his  life  to  the  cause  of  the  Indians 
on  two  continents.  And  be  it  said  to  the  lasting  honor  of 
this  man,  that  the  purity  of  his  character,  his  unselfish  de- 
votion to  his  philanthropic  convictions,  and  the  religious 
life  he  led,  had  made  the  black  gown  and  the  cross  the 
shield  of  his  life  among  savage  tribes. 

Of  the  many  scholars,  travelers,  writers,  celebrities  and 
eminent  men  whom  General  Harney  has  freely  met  and 
whose  friendship  he  has  enjoyed  may  be  enumerated  as  a 
part,  Henry  Schoolcraft,  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar,  George 
Catlin,  the  son  of  Audubon  the  naturalist,  Bonneville,  Gil- 
pin, Kit  Carson,  all  explorers  and  frontiersmen  and  the 
ornament  of  the  society  of  every  section.  Among  his 
friends  were  the  wife  and  the  son  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
of  whom  he  speaks  with  great  admiration  and  regard,  both 
for  their  personal  qualities  and  the  associations  that  cling 
around  "  the  principal  and  most  confidential  aid  of  Wash- 
ington. " 

The  trusted  chieftain  always  stands  close  to   the  execu- 


4.56  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

tive  head  of  the  government,  and  General  Harney  has  been 
the  friend  and  adviser  of  every  President,  from  Monroe 
down,  through  his  pubhc  hfe.  President  Pierce  trusted 
him  as  he  trusted  no  other  soldier.  In  another  phase  of 
public  life  he  mentions  with  respect  and  kindness  Greeley 
and  Sumner,  and  Butler  and  Banks,  Lincoln  and  Jefferson 
Davis,  Senators  Benton  and  Linn,  of  Missouri,  Sam  Hous- 
ton and  Davy  Crockett,  and  Cassius  M.  Clay.  These  are 
but  a  few  of  the  many  public  men  who  treated  him  with 
courtesy,  honored  his  judgment,  and  held  him  in  high 
esteem.  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Jefferson  Davis  are  spoken 
of  by  him  with  great  regard,  as  being  friends  of  his  early 
and  of  his  later  life. 

In  Cuba  he  met  and  became  acquainted  with  Fanny 
EUsler,  the  celebrated  French  dancer,  and  renewed  that 
acquaintance  in  New  York  City.  The  friendship  was  wo- 
ven between  the  two,  and  the  admiration  reciprocal.  Cora 
Montgomery,  a  writer  of  considerable  talents  and  the  au- 
thor of  several  books,  the  most  quoted  of  w^hich  is  "  The 
Queen  of  Islands  and  the  King  of  Rivers,"  was  a  lady 
whose  society  he  enjoyed  in  Florida.  Madame  Octavia 
LeVert,  a  lady  whose  talents  and  charms  are  known  to  a 
large  portion  of  the  American  people,  and  whose  personal 
recollections  were  varied  and  romantic,  was  one  of  his 
staunch  friends  and  admirers. 

In  the  wanderings  and  vicissitudes  of  a  long  life,  the  rec- 
ollections of  childhood  still  remain  as  the  freshest  spots  to 
which  the  memory  reverts,  and  neither  weary  years  nor 
the  fragility  of  human  things  can  so  becloud  the  mind  or 
weaken  the  sensibilities  as  to  take  away  the  fond  recollec- 
tions of  youth  when  green  pastures,  running  brooks  and 
school-boy  days  come  and  go  like 'phantom  moments  in 
the  life  of  the  pioneer  boy.  Of  those  who  were  kindred 
and  friends  of  General  Harney  in  his  youth,  but  one 
who  grew  up  side  by  side  with  General  Harney,  still  re- 
mains on  this  side  of  the  eternal  world.     General  E.  G.  W. 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  45/ 

Butler  remains  a  bright  connecting  link  between  the  pres- 
ent and  the  past,  and  furnishes  some  recollections  that  none 
other  could  give; 

1529  Lucas  Place, 
St.  Louis,  May  20,  1878. 
My  Dear  Sir: 

Your  note  has  just  been  handed  to  me,  and  I  proceed  to  reply  to  it,  in  com- 
pHance  with  your  request,  and  according  to  my  understanding  of  its  interest 
and  meaning. 

Tho'  previously  acquainted,  General  Harney  and  myself  were  brought  to- 
gether as  inmates  of  the  family  and  students  under  the  late  learned  and  Rev. 
Thomas  Craighead,  a  Scotch  Divine,  and  brother-in-law  of  Hon.  James  Brown, 
Senator  from  Louisiana,  and  Dr.  Sam  Brown,  of  Kentucky;  where  we  remained 
till  my  departure  for  West  Point,  in  the  autumn  of  1816.  He  was  a  warm- 
hearted, brave,  impulsive,  generous  and  affectionate  boy,  and  devoted  friend; 
and  his  after  distinguished  military  career  is  but  the  sequel  of  such  honorable 
characteristics.  His  father  resided  in  the  immediate  neighborhoc  .  of 
ParsDn  Craighead;  and  I,  (then  the  ward  of  Andrew  Jackson,  having  lost  my 
gallant  father  when  only  three  years  of  age),  passed  much  of  my  time  at  the 
"  Hermitage,"  three  or  four  miles  away.  During  my  absence  at  West  Point, 
Harney  was  appointed  a  Second  Lieutenant  in  the  ist  regiment  of  infantry, 
and  a  year  after  my  graduation  at  the  Military  Academy,  in  1821,  I  found  him 
at  Baton  Rouge. 

As  the  last  paragraph  of  your  letter  seems  to  have  reference  to  7)iyself,  I  will 
remark  that  I  was  born  at  Tellico,  a  military  station  on  Hiawassee  River,  in 
East  Tennessee,  then  commanded  by  my  father,  on  the  22nd  of  February,  1800. 

My  grandfather,  Thomas  Butler,  an  officer  in  the  British  army,  having  been 
implicated  in  revolutionary  movements  in  Ireland,  resigned  and  removed  with 
his  wife  and  thi-ee  sons  (Richard,  William  and  Thomas),  to  Carlisle,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1748,  where  Pierce  and  Edward,  the  other  two  of  "the  five  Revo- 
lutionary Butler  Brothers,"  as  they  were  termed,  were  born.  They  were  Major 
General  Richard,  commander  of  the  "Rifles"  during  the  Revolution,  and 
killed  at  "St.  Clair's  Defeat,"  4th  November,  1791 ;  and  Colonels  William, 
Thomas,  Pierce  and  Edward,  the  latter  Adjutant  General  of  the  Army,  in  1796, 
under  Major  General  Wayne,  and  my  father. 

My  grandfather  was  descended  from  the  "Danboyne"  branch  of  the  Irish 
Butlers,  originally  Fitzwalters,  from  Normandy;  in  addition  to  which  those  are 
now  extant,  the  Houses  of  Onuoude,  Carrick,  Lanesboro,  St.  Mountgaust,  and 
others  extinct  or  in  abeyance.  My  mother  was  Isabella  Fowler,  daughter  of 
George  Fowler,  Captain  of  British  Grenadiers,  who  led  the  British  "  Forlorn 
Hope"  at  Bunker  Hill,  for  which  "desperate  gallantry"  Major  General  Sir 
Richard  Pigott  presented  him  on  the  field  the  Grenadier's  Cap,  now  in  my 
possession,  of  crimson  velvet,  with  the  British  Crown  and  Royal  Cipher  C.  R. ; 
the  white  Saxon  horse,  and  motto  of  the  Royal  Hauddecaa  Guelphie  Order: 
"«^<r  aspera  terrant."  The  extract  from  General  Luliane's  "History  of  the 
West  Point  Graduates"  will  give  you  an  idea  of  my  military  record,  and  my 
civil  one  covers  too  much  space  for  your  present  purpose ;  but,  being  written 


^^-8  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

out,  you  may  possibly  think  it  worth  your  notice  in  future.  Were  you  to  see 
the  letters  now  on  my  table,  and  in  my  trunks  and  drawers,  you  would  imagine 
it  woulil  confuse  a  nearly  blind  man  to  attempt  to  quote  from  them. 

My  tjifted  and  illustrious  wife,  who  died  at  Pass  Christain,  Mississippi,  June 
30th,  1S75,  was  born  at  Mount  Vernon,  November  27,  1799,  seventeen  days 
before  the  death  of  Washington.  Her  father,  Lawrence  Lewis,  was  the  son  of 
the  General's  only  sister,  Elizabeth,  who  married  Fielding  Lewis;  and  her 
mother,  Eleanor  Parke  Custis,  was  the  daughter  of  John  Parke  Custis,  son  of 
Mrs.  Washington,  by  the  first  husband,  Daniel  Parke  Custis;  and  her  mother 
was  Jul'a  Calvert,  granddaughter  of  I>ord  Baltimore. 

When  she  died,  Mrs.  Butler  was  the  nearest  living  relative  of  Washington, 
and  in  common  with  Mrs.  Commodore  Newman  and  George  Washington 
Peter,  of  Maryland,  she  was  the  nearest  living  relative  of  Mrs.  Washington. 
A  most  remarkable  pedigree  ! 

My  noble  and  beautiful  daughter  died  in  New  Orleans,  September  16,  1876, 
leaving  me  alone  with  my  only  living  son  and  child,  Major  Lawrence  Lewis 
Butler,  of  this  place. 

God  has  dealt  harshly  with  me ;  but  a  distinguished  friend  writes  to  me : 
"  I  envy  you,  my  dear  sir,  your  cheerful  fortitude  and  the  brave  unconcern 
with  which  you  face  all  the  batteries  of  life." 

With  best  wishes.  Faithfully  yours, 
E.  G.  W.  BUTLER. 

L.  U.  Reavis,  Esq.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

General  Harney  also  counts  among  his  warm  and  life- 
long friends,  Mrs.  Myra  Clark  Gaines,  a  modern  Minerva. 
The  records  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  bear  con- 
spicuous evidence  of  her  pertinacity,  perseverance,  and 
abilit)',  while  her  feminine  delicacy  and  generosity,  and  the 
unostentatious  contribution  of  charities,  add  lustre  to  her 
personal  excellences.  She  is  in  truth  a  historic  woman  ; 
the  daughter  of  Daniel  Clark,  an  Irish  nobleman,  who  came 
to  this  country  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century.  She 
was  born  in  1807,  in  New  Orleans.  Her  last  marriage  was 
to  General  Gaines,  a  warm  personal  friend  of  General  Har- 
ney. General  Gaines  possessed  the  highest  excellencies 
of  a  friend  and  a  husband,  and  deeply  sympathizing  with 
Miss  Myra  Clark,  in  her  efforts  to  get  possession  of  her 
father's  property,  a  marriage  was  consummated,  and  Gen- 
eral Gaines  placed  ;^ioo,ooo  at  her  disposal  to  prosecute 
her  claims  and  establish  her  title  to  her  father's  estates. 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  LNCIDENTS.  459 

Of  the  many  noted  Indian  chiefs  known  and  esteemed 
by  General  Harney,  in  years  gone  by,  Osceola  and  Keokuk 
were  most  admired  by  him.  He  regarded  Osceola  as  a  gal- 
lant, daring,  scheming,  able  and  efficient  leader,  one  worthy 
to  be  an  opponent.  This  was  an  estimate  of  Osceola  quite 
different  to  that  usually  made  by  writers. 

Keokuk  was,  in  the  highest  degree,  a  fine  specimen  of 
physical  and  intellectual  manhood,  and  General  Harney 
relates  with  pleasure  that  he  was  the  best  dancer  ever 
known  among  the  Indians  of  his  day,  and  could  only  be 
equaled  in  the  dance  by  himself.  He  was  also  companion- 
able in  his  associations,  and  was  not  behind  in  contributing 
his  share  of  fun  when  in  company.  Keokuk  was  fond  of 
relating,  as  one  of  his  best,  a  story  of  a  tribe  of  Indians 
found  at  one  time  when  on  a  war  chase.  He  said  they 
never  ate.  Keokuk  would  tell  to  his  hungry  auditors  that 
this  tribe  would  cook  thin  victuals  and  then  stand  over  and 
smell  them  till  their  hunger  was  gone. 

INCIDENTS    AND  PERILS. 

An  interesting  phase  of  General  Harney's  life  is  well 
illustrated  by  anecdotes  and  perils,  a  few  of  which  have 
been  gathered. 

Beginning  in  1850,  the  citizens  of  Texas,  particularly  the 
new  settlers,  were  troubled,  harassed  and  suffered  a  consid- 
erable loss  of  property,  stock,  etc.,  by  the  incursions  and 
raids  of  predatory,  thieving  bands  of  Indians,  principally  the 
Tonquas,  L'pans  and  northern  Comanches.  These  tribes 
were  noted  thieves,  and  stole  and  drove  off  on  every  possi- 
ble occasion  large  numbers  of  horses,  mules,  etc.  These 
thefts  having  been  brought  officially  to  the  notice  of  Gen- 
eral Harney,  then  Colonel  of  the  2d  regiment  United 
States  dragoons  and  Brevet  Brigadier  General  United 
States  army,  commanding  the  Department  of  Texas,  he 
gave  orders  for  the  organization  of  several  expeditions,  the 
first  of  which  was  against  the  Tonquas,  which  went  out  in 
the    latter    part  of    1850,    under    the  command    of   Major 


^60  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

Sibley,  2d  dragoons.  The  command  consisted  of  detach- 
ments from  three  companies  of  dragoons  and  one  company 
of  mounted  rifles,  now  the  3d  U.  S.  cavalry.  This  com- 
mand encountered  a  large  force,  gave  them  a  severe  licking, 
killing  four  and  wounding  several,  and  recovered  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  stolen  animals,  which  were  returned  to  the 
owners  whenever  found.  In  this  engagement  Lieutenant 
Arthur  D.  Tree,  2d  dragoons,  was  slightly  wounded  ;  one 
private  of  Company  I,  2d  dragoons,  was  killed  by  being 
thrown  from  his  horse  in  the  charge  down  the  ravine  upon 
the  Indians.  A  large  number  of  silver-mounted  bridles 
were  found  concealed  under  the  blankets  worn  by  the 
squaws  captured,  for  which  the  owners  could  not  be  found. 
It  was  supposed  that  these  bridles  were  stolen  in  Mexico, 
or  near  the  Mexican  border. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1850,  and  early  in  185 1,  several 
smaller  expeditions  and  scouting  parties  were  sent  out  by 
General  Harney,  which  succeeded  in  taking  several  prison- 
ers (afterwards  released),  and  securing  considerable  stolen 
property. 

In  the  spring  of  185  i,  quite  a  large  expedition,  compris- 
ing two  companies,  A  and  G,  2d  dragoons,  and  a  company 
of  infantry  mounted,  went  out  after  the  Tonquas.  Major 
Arnold  was  detailed  for  command,  but  being  sick  and  un- 
able to  go.  Lieutenant  R.  I.  Dodge,  of  the  infantry,  took 
command.  After  a  rapid  pursuit  of  nine  days,  the  Indians 
were  overtaken,  and  an  engagement  ensued,  in  which  three 
were  killed,  several  wounded  and  taken  prisoners  ;  over 
two  hundred  horses  and  ponies,  including  ten  or  twelve 
pack  mules,  were  captured.  The  casualties  of  Lieutenant 
Dodge's  command  were  two  men  wounded,  and  a  Delaware 
Indian  guide  killed. 

Later  in  185 1,  a  large  expedition  was  sent  out  by  order 
of  General  Harney,  composed  of  several  detachments  of 
cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  W.  B.  Hazen,  of  the 
infantry  (now  Colonel  and  Brevet  Major-General  U.  S.  A.) 


RECOLLECTIOxNS  AND  INCIDENTS.  46 1 

This  force,  after  a  long  march,  encountered  the  Lipans  near 
the  Nueces  River,  and  a  running  fight  ensued  for  several 
miles.  Three  warriors  were  killed  and  several  wounded. 
Lieutenant  Hazen  was  severely  wounded,  and  had  three 
men  wounded,  one  of  whom  died  subsequently  at  Fort 
Mason,  Texas.  He  was  shot  in  the  breast  with  a  flint 
arrow.  Over  three  hundred  animals  were  captured.  In 
those  days  the  Indians  did  not  use  rifles  and  ball  cartridges, 
which  accounts  for  so  few  casualties  among  the  troops. 

Numerous  small  expeditions  and  scouting  parties  were, 
by  orders  of  General  Harney,  sent  out  from  Forts  Mason, 
Chadbourne,  McKarett,  Terrett,  Belknap,  and  other  posts, 
whenever  Indian  depredations  were  reported,  from  185 1  to 
1853,  which  met  the  Indians  in  small  bodies,  and  from 
whom  was  taken  the  animals  found  in  their  possession. 

In  the  summer  of  1854,  a  large  expedition  was  sent  out 
by  General  Harney  to  find  the  northern  Comanches  who 
were  reported  in  force  on  the  North  Fork  of  the  Canadian 
River,  in  the  Wichita  Mountains,  Texas.  This  expedition 
comprised  all  the  available  forces  of  the  2d  dragoons, 
General  Harney's  regiment,  stationed  at  Forts  Mason,  Ter- 
rett, McKarett,  Chadbourne,  and  Belknap,  in  all  about 
three  hundred  men,  and  a  battery  of  mountain  howitzers, 
manned  by  a  detachment  of  said  regiment.  Captain  W.  I. 
Newton  started  in  command,  but  at  Fort  Terrett  he  went 
on  the  sick  report,  when  Captain  Patrick  Calhoun  (son  of 
Hon.  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,)  assumed  com- 
mand. He  was  a  brave  and  gallant  officer  and  was  eager 
for  a  fight.  Captain  Calhoun's  command  did  not  find  the 
Comanches  in  as  large  force  as  was  expected,  but  found  a 
large  camp  of  a  few  Indians  guarding  about  three  hun- 
dred animals  ;  these  were  captured. 

Scouting  parties  were  sent  out  frequently  after  this  along 
the  Llano,  Nueces,  Salado,  and  other  rivers  where  the 
Indians  congregated  up  to  1855,  when  the  regiment  left 
the    State   for  Kansas    and    the  Ash    Hollow   and    Sioux 


^62  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

expedition,  at  which  time  Indian  raids  and  depredations 
were  almost  entirely  suppressed,  and  the  citizens  of  the 
State  had  a  long  immunity  from  thefts  and  disorders. 

The  punishment  of  the  numerous  tribes  in  Texas  and  the 
recovery  of  the  large  number  of  stolen  animals,  remanded 
to  the  possession  of  their  owners  when  found,  was  due  in 
the  largest  measure  to  the  zeal,  energy,  and  promptness  of 
General  Harney,  as  commander  of  the  Department  of 
Texas.  While  he  was  stationed  there  he  had  the  confi- 
dence and  high  regard  of  the  citizens  of  the  State,  who 
felt  safe  and  secure  while  he  was  in  command.  "  Harney 
and  his  dragoons  "  were  the  terror  of  the  red  devils,  who 
soon  found  out  the  sort  of  a  man  they  had  to  deal  with. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  appreciation  by  the  citizens  of  his 
administration  of  military  affairs,  the  authorities  of  San 
Antonio  thanked  him  officially,  and  presented  Lieutenant 
Hazen  (for  gallantry  in  the  Lipan  fight)  with  a  fine  sword. 
From  this  time  the  State  began  to  increase  wonderfully  in 
population  and  importance. 

Up  to  1857  there  was  an  old  sergeant  in  the  2d  dra- 
goons named  Koconski.  He  had  been  1st  sergeant  of  Gen- 
eral Harney's  company  when  he  was  a  Captain,  and  served 
with  him  in  the  Florida  war.  Koconski  had  served  a  long 
time  and  was  very  fond  of  his  toddy,  and  frequently  getting 
tight,  he  was  reduced  to  the  ranks  by  the  Captain  of  his 
company.  Captain  W.  I.  Newton.  On  an  occasion  when  a 
number  of  privates  were  required  to  go  on  the  General's 
escort,  Koconski  was  one  of  the  number  so  detailed. 
When  he  appeared  at  Austin  before  the  General,  the 
latter  asked  him : 

"  Is  not  that  sergeant  Koconski  ?  " 

"  I  was  sergeant  Koconski,  sir,  but  the  Captain,  Newton, 
reduced  me  to  the  ranks." 

"  What  for  ?  "  asked  the  General.  . 

"  For  getting  drunk,  sir,"  he  replied. 

"  Well,"  said  the  General,  "you  go  back  and  tell  Captam 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  463 

Newton  to  restore  you  as  a  sergeant.  A  man  who  has 
served  as  long  as  you  have  and  done  as  good  service  as 
you  have,  can  drink  as  much  as  he  wants  in  my  regiment." 

Koconski,  upon  returning  to  his  company,  put  on  his  ser- 
geant's chevrons.  When  Captain  Newton  saw  him  he 
asked  him  what  he  was  doing  with  a  sergeant's  chevrons 
on  after  having  been  reduced  to  the  ranks.     He  repHed : 

"  A  d — d  sight  better  man  than  you  told  me  to  put 
them  on,  sir.  The  General,  Harney,  told  me  to  put  them 
on,  sir." 

Koconski  was  not  disturbed  after  that. 

On  one  occasion,  when  General  Harney  was  mustering 
the  companies  of  the  regiment,  he  came  to  Company  "  G," 
to  which  Koconski  belonged.  The  first  sergeant  being  sick, 
it  devolved  upon  Sergeant  Koconski,  the  senior  duty  ser- 
geant, to  call  the  roll.  While  doing  so,  the  old  man's 
mind  seemed  to  wander,  and  he  began  calling  a  number  of 
names  that  no  one  present  ever  heard  of  before.  The  Gen- 
eral observing  him  intensely,  and  recognizing  the  names  as 
those  belonging  to  his  company  in  the  Florida  war,  said, 
"  Hold  on,  sergeant,  the  men  whose  names  you  are  calling 
were  all  killed  in  the  Florida  war.  They  are  all  dead  and 
buried  years  and  years  ago."  "Captain,"  said  he,  turning 
to  Captain  Newton,  "  don't  let  that  man  do  any  more  duty. 
He  has  soldiered  long  enough.  He  has  had  his  day.  Let 
him  rest;  lefhim  rest !  " 

At  Fort  Mason,  Texas,  in  185 1,  Dr.  Steiner,  Assistant 
Surgeon  U.  S.  A.,  in  a  personal  altercation,  shot  and  killed 
Captain  and  Brevet  Major  Ripley  A.  Arnold.  To  avoid 
arrest  and  a  trial  by  court  martial,  Steiner  left  the  post  and 
went  to  Waco  Village,  as  it  was  then  designated.  General 
Harney,  in  order  to  have  Steiner  court  martialed,  sent  a 
detachment  of  his  regiment,  under  command  of  Lieutenant 
Richard  H.  Anderson  (afterwards  Major  General  in  the 
Confederate  army),  to  arrest  Steiner.  Steiner's  friends,  in 
great  force,  with  rifles,  shot-guns  and  pistols,  assembled  at 


464  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

his  house  and  swore  he  should  not  be  taken.  Anderson, 
with  his  small  force,  and  himself  not  liking  the  job,  failed 
to  arrest  Steiner.  When  General  Harney  heard  of  Ander- 
son's failure,  he  swore  he  would  have  Steiner,  and  proposed 
to  go  himself,  with  his  entire  regiment,  if  he  could  not  be 
taken  otherwise.  Before  any  preparations  were  made  for  a 
second  attempt  to  secure  Steiner,  he  fled  from  Waco,  and 
could  not  be  found.  General  Harney  did  not  like  Ander- 
son's action  in  the  matter,  and  never  had  a  good  opinion  of 
him  afterwards. 

While  at  Austin,  at  the  headquarters,  in  1852,  General 
Harney  had  as  his  orderly  a  chief  bugler  of  the  regiment, 
named  Fieldstroop.  The  General,  early  one  morning,  found 
Fieldstroop  in  his  garden,  with  his  shot-gun,  engaged  in 
shooting  his  (the  General's)  fine  chickens.  These  were  of 
fine  breed  and  very  valuable.  Looking  at  Fieldstroop  and 
a  dead  chicken  just  shot,  the  General  called  to  him : 

"  What  are  you  doing  shooting  my  chickens  ?  "  said  the 
General.  "  Is  that  the  way  you  do  after  I  have  given  you 
a  shot-gun  and  bought  you  ammunition  to  kill  game,  you 
kill  my  fine  poultry?" 

"  I  didn't  know  they  belonged  to  you.  General,"  said  F. 

"  Very  well,"  said  the  General,  "  go  and  take  off  those 
chevrons,"  referring  to  the  ensignia  of  rank  of  the  chief 
bugler  (sergeant  of  the  band). 

"  But,  General,  I  did  not  intend — " 

"  Go  and  take  them  off,"  thundered  the  General,  and 
poor  Fieldstroop  was  reduced  to  the  ranks  without  cere- 
mony. 

The  ne.xt  day  the  General  encountered  Eugene  Pullen, 
a  private  of  "  G  "  company,  on  the  detail  of  the  General's 
escort. 

"  Pullen,"  said  he,  "  can  you  blow  a  bugle  ?  " 

"  No,  General,"  said  Pullen. 

"  Can  you  blow  a  penny  whistle  ? — can  you  blow  any- 
thing ?  " 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  465 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Pullen,  "  I  can  blow  a  whistle." 

"  Then,"  said  the  General,  "  I  make  you  my  chief  bu- 
gler," and  Pullen  was  promoted. 

General  Harney,  on  a  certain  occasion,  said  something 
to  a  teamster,  which  he  thought  was  rather  personal,  and 
replied  to  the  General  that  he  was  as  good  a  man  as  he 
was.  "  Very  well,"  replied  the  General,  "  we  will  test  that 
proposition  ;  "  and  they  began  to  "  go  for  each  other." 
Both  being  powerful  men,  capable  of  giving  and  receiving 
sturdy  blows,  it  was  rather  a  drawn  battle.  The  teamster 
was,  however,  pretty  roughly  handled.  After  they  got 
through  the  teamster  said  the  General  was  a  hard  customer 
to  handle.  The  General  told  him  "  he  was  a  pretty  good 
man  after  all." 

In  1852,  while  in  command  in  Texas,  General  Harney 
procured  for  his  regiment  a  fine  quality  of  Mexican  som- 
breros (wide-brimmed  hats)  as  a  protection  against  the  hot 
sun.  One  day,  in  San  Antonio,  he  accosted  a  citizen 
having  on  his  head  one  of  the  hats  issued  to  the  2d  dra- 
goons. 

"  Where  did  you  get  that  hat?  "  asked  the  General. 

"  I  bought  it  from  a  store,"  replied  the  citizen. 

"No,  sir,"  said  the  General;  "those  hats  belong  to  the 
2d  dragoons,  my  regiment,  and  the  men  don't  sell  them. 
That  hat  belongs  to  my  regiment,  and  if  you  don't  return 
it  I  will  have  you  arrested  for  theft."  The  hat  was  turned 
over. 

On  one  occasion  when  a  detachment  of  his  regiment  was 
going  into  a  fight,  they  were  ordered  to  throw  away  the 
old,  cumbersome  musketoons.  The  men  afterwards  found 
them  charged  to  them  on  the  pay  roll,  but  General  Harney 
ordered  that  they  should  be  condemned,  and  that  the  men 
should  not  be  compelled  to  pay  for  them. 

By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  General  Harney 
was  directed,  in  1851,  to  test  the  merits  of  meat  biscuit, 
a  sort  of  compound  which,  as  stated  by  the  inventor,  was 

30 


^66  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

a.  substitute  for  both  meat  and  bread.  It  was  supposed 
that  on  account  of  its  compressed  condition  large  quanti- 
ties could  be  transported,  sufficient  for  a  command  on  long 
expeditions.  General  Harney  selected  a  number  of  officers 
to  go  on  a  march  and  bake  nothing  to  eat  but  the  meat  bis- 
cuit, in  order  that  its  merits  might  be  fully  tested.  They 
were  positively  instructed  to  draw  no  rations  of  any  kind 
from  the  commissary  but  the  "  biscuit,"  which  instructions 
were  carried  out  to  the  letter.  After  a  scout  and  march  of 
ten  days  the  officers  and  men  returned  to  camp  with  a  very 
poor  opinion  of  the  meat  biscuit.  It  is  sufficient  to  state 
that  the  biscuit  was  heard  of  no  more  in  the  army.  The 
officers  did  not  like  the  General's  order  restricting  them 
from  other  diet,  but  they  obeyed  and  came  in  from  the 
trip  in  a  lean,  hungry  condition. 

The  life  of  the  soldier  upon  the  frontier  is  full  of  priva- 
tions and  perils,  and  what  is  still  harder  to  be  borne  at 
times,  a  long  monotony.  Too  many  of  the  officers  of  the 
army  fall  into  dissipation  from  the  very  lack  of  something 
to  employ  them,  but  in  General  Harney's  case,  his  asso- 
ciates all  bear  witness  to  his  wonderful  activity  and  to  his 
abstemiousness.  His  love  of  adventure  and  his  habit  of 
exploration  led  him  into  many  perils  and  many  exploits 
which  a  more  reserved  or  a  less  energetic  man  would  have 
avoided. 

While  in  Florida,  he  on  one  occasion  received  information 
that  the  Indians  were  in  force  some  distance  down  the 
coast,  and  supposing  their  numbers  to  be  small,  he  ordered 
out  boats,  and  with  fifty-four  picked  men  started  on  an 
expedition  down  the  INIatanzas  River.  This  was  in  Sep- 
tember, about  the  time  of  the  equinoxial  storm,  and  he 
had  only  proceeded  some  twenty  miles  to  a  point  called 
the  "  Haul  Over,"  which  was  a  narrow  portage  between  the 
Indian  River  and  the  New  Smyrna,  when  the  storm  came 
and  compelled  him  to  lay  up  with  his  party.  This  delay 
exhausted  their  supplies,  and  they  were  driven  to  return  to 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  467 

St.  Augustine  for  more  rations.  Wlien  he  started  he  took 
all  the  men  the  boats  would  carry,  and  supposed  that  there 
were  only  some  two  or  three  hundred  of  the  Indians.  In 
that  case  he  would  have  had  an  adequate  force,  but  after 
his  return  he  learned  that  there  were  several  thousand,  and 
if  the  expedition  had  not  been  turned  back  an  attack  by 
so  small  a  party  would  have  been  extremely  disastrous, 
and  perhaps  resulted  in  the  killing  of  the  whole  party. 

On  the  return  it  was  necessary  to  move,  for  some  fifteen 
or  twenty  miles,  in  the  ocean  to  get  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Smyrna  river.  The  wind  shifted  from  the  east  to  the 
west,  and,  the  tide  running  out,  made  a  strong  current  off 
shore  and  increased  the  hazard.  Colonel  Harney's  boat 
was  in  the  advance  and  it  was  only  when  the  danger  was 
fully  encountered  that  it  was  apparent.  In  the  rough  wa- 
ter it  was  equally  as  hazardous  to  attempt  to  return  as  to 
advance.  While  struggling  against  wind  and  tide  in  a 
heavy  sea,  the  boat  capsized.  Colonel  Harney  told  the 
men  to  hang  to  the  boat ;  but  few  of  them  were  able  to  do 
so,  and  only  three  were  eventually  saved.  Only  one 
clung  to  the  boat.  Harney  himself  became  entangled 
in  a  rope,  and  sank  when  the  boat  went  over,  but  on  extri- 
cating himself  he  came  to  the  surface  and  saw  the  boat 
some  thirty  yards  distant.  He  was  already  much  ex- 
hausted, and  a  barrel  of  hard-tack  drifting  near  him,  he 
seized  and  clung  to  it.  The  men  in  the  other  boats  wit- 
nessed the  disaster  from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  but  could 
render  no  assistance.  Harney  was  blown  entirely  out  of 
sight  and  was  supposed  by  his  comrades  to  be  lost.  Still 
he  clung  to  his  barrel  of  hard-tack,  which  was  to  him  a 
veritable  "staff  of  life."  He  had  been  in  the  water  over 
an  hour,  when  he  felt  himself  exhausted  and  was  despair- 
ing, feeling  all  the  bitterness  of  the  brave  man  whose  life 
was  that  of  contention  upon  the  land,  a^nd  who  was  now 
about  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the  sea. 

In  this  situation  the  words  of  Solomon  went  through  his 


468  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

mind  :  "  Bone  for  bone,  and  skin  for  skin.  Yea,  all  that  a 
man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life."  But  the  fates  had  of- 
fered him  no  alternative.  He  said  his  prayers,  and  with 
the  madness  of  despair  and  exhaustion  pushed  the  barrel 
from  him  and  resigned  himself  to  the  sea.  To  his  surprise 
his  foot  struck  the  bottom  before  his  head  went  under,  and 
hope  revived  in  his  breast.  He  was  a  good  swimmer,  and 
he  now  had  an  incentive  to  exertion.  After  a  long  strug- 
gle, which  tested  even  his  wonderful  powers  of  endurance, 
he  reached  the  shore  and  carried  joy  to  the  hearts  of  his 
comrades,  after  having  been  in  the  water  for  an  hour  and 
three-quarters. 

Another  watery  peril  was  encountered  at  Cape  May, 
where  he  had  gone  with  his  family  to  have  some  recrea- 
tion at  a  time  when  his  children  were  at  school  at  St. 
Mary's  convent  in  Maryland.  While  there  a  party,  con- 
sisting of  himself,  Miss  Niles,  daughter  of  the  veteran 
editor  of  Niles'  Register,  a  Mr.  Ayers  of  Philadelphia, 
and  Miss  Taylor,  niece  of  General  Taylor,  were  bathing. 
They  advanced  some  distance  from  the  shore,  all  being 
ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  bottom.  General  Harney, 
accompanied  by  Miss  Niles,  suddenly  entered  deep  water. 
Feeling  himself  careened  over  by  the  buoyancy  of  the 
water,  he  seized  Miss  Niles,  and  holding  her  at  arm's 
length  above  the  water,  so  increased  his  own  weight  as  to 
gain  a  firm  foothold  and  walk  back  with  her,  at  the  same 
time  warning  the  others.  It  was  only  when  all  were  safe 
that  the  ladies  learned  of  the  great  danger  they  had 
escaped.  This  incident  well  illustrates  his  presence  of 
mind  and  prompt  action  in  danger. 

In  the  military  life  of  General  Harney  he  has  not  only 
fulfilled  all  the  specified  and  well-defined  duties  of  his  posi- 
tion, but  he  has  in  many  instances  gone  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary requirements  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  people 
among  whom  he  has  been  stationed.  His  good  deeds  have 
been   impressed  upon  every  community  wherever  his  duty 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  469 

has  called  him,  and  he  is  remembered  with  pride  and  grat- 
itude. His  benevolences  have  been  large,  and  the  subjects 
for  their  exercise  well  chosen. 

As  a  soldier,  proud  of  his  duty,  and  enthusiastic  in  its 
discharge,  he  was  tenacious  of  the  privileges  and  honors 
that  he  felt  he  had  fairly  won.  The  following  communi- 
cation, addressed  to  General  Scott,  recounts  with  clear- 
ness his  services  up  to  that  period,  and  gives  point  to  the 
position  of  affairs  at  that  time  : 

AusTix,  Texas,  August  i,  1852. 
General : 

It  is  one  of  the  most  invaluable  privileges  of  every  person  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  whether  he  is  connected  with  the  Govern- 
ment by  the  ties  of  official  relation  or  a  simple  citizen,  whenever  he  deems  him- 
self the  subject  of  any  public  grievance,  to  present  a  firm  but  respectful  peti- 
tion to  the  proper  authority  for  a  redress  of  his  wrongs. 

I  trust  that  it  will  not  be  thought  that  I  am  presumptuous  when  I  say  that 
such  is  now  my  lot.  After  a  faithful,  and  I  am  sure  I  may  assert  without  being 
reproached  with  egotism,  a  useful  and  intelligent  service,  extending  over  a 
term  of  thirty-five  years — commencing  in  my  boyhood  and  reaching  beyond 
the  climacteric  point  of  life ;  after  having  passed  through  every  grade  from  the 
lowest  known  in  our  army  organization,  to  the  command  of  a  cavalry  regiment, 
with  the  brevet  of  a  General  officer,  I  find  myself  assigned,  by  a  late  order 
from  the  Headquarters  of  the  Eighth  Military  Department,  to  a  post  to  be  gar- 
ilsoned  by  one  company  of  dragoons,  and  the  necessary  attaches  of  the  head- 
quarters of  a  regiment,  ^^^lat  command  will  I  have  at  this  post  ?  The  paper 
command oi  my  regiment  and  of  a  garrison  of  a  single  company! 

I  do  not  mention  this  matter  in  a  tone  of  complaint  of  the  present  distin- 
guished commander  of  the  Eighth  Military  Department. 

He  is  a  soldier  of  the  highest  merit,  and  a  gentleman  of  exalted  and  varied 
accomplishments,  adorned  by  the  grace  of  simple,  urbane  and  unafitected 
manners. 

Under  the  limitations  placed  around  him  by  higher  authority,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  assign  me  to  some  of  the  frontier  posts,  the  garrison  of  no  one  of 
which  could  exceed  two  companies.  It  was  a  matter  of  indifference  so  far  as 
command  was  involved,  whether  I  went  to  a  post  occupied  by  one  or  two  com- 
panies, and  hence  the  order  was  shaped,  on  other  accounts,  so  as  to  place  me 
at  a  one  company  post. 

I  respectfully  ask  whether  this  is  a  proper  renumeration  for  the  length  of 
time  I  have  served  my  country,  the  character  of  the  services  I  have  rendered 
it,  or  a  fit  and  proper  command  for  an  officer  of  the  grade  which  I  attained  in 
its  army  ?  The  answer  to  this  question,  I  am  constrained  to  believe,  would  be 
given  in  the  negative  by  every  well-informed  and  unbiased  man. 

As  I  have  more  than  once  referred  to  my  military  services,  I  will,  that  it  may 


470 


LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 


be  seen  that  T  do  not  exaggerate  their  importance,  present  a  brief  outline  of  my 
military  life  for  the  past  sixteen  years.  I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  go  back 
to  the  long  years  of  patient  toil  which  I  passed  in  tlie  frozen  and  trackless  wilds 
of  the  northwest,  surrounded  by  thousands  of  warlike  savages;  nor  to  refer  to 
the  arduous  and  trying  duty  which  fell  to  the  active  participants  in  the  Indian 
troubles  of  1831  and  1832 — a  season  when  an  insiduous  pestilence  environed 
the  troops  with  dangers  a  thousand  fold  more  appalling  than  all  the  casualties 
of  undisciplined  warfare,  and  before  whose  awful  violence  the  stoutest  all 
over  the  land  fell  an  easy  prey,  and  many  of  the  bravest  hearts  quailed. 

I  could  have  the  history  of  my  service  from  1818  to  1836  read  without  any 
fear  that  it  would  bring  discredit  on  me ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  purpose 
for  which  I  write  this  paper  to  recur  to  a  period  so  remote. 

In  the  summer  of  1836,  the  regiment  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be  at  the 
head,  was  formed,  and  in  August  of  the  same  year,  I  was  appointed  its  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel.  I  applied  immediately  to  be  ordered  to  Florida,  the  scene  of 
active  hostilities,  which  request  was  granted. 

Without  detailing  minutely  all  the  incidents  of  my  six  years'  service  in  the 
Florida  War,  I  will  remark  generally,  that  I  was  actively  engaged,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  two  intervals,  from  1836  to  1842.  The  absences  were  necessary  to 
restore  my  health,  which  had  been  destroyed  by  fever  brought  on  by  exposure 
to  the  miasmas  of  the  hammocks. 

From  the  moment  of  my  entrance  into  Florida  to  the  day  of  my  departure,  I 
was  active  in  season  and  out  of  season  in  the  cause  of  my  countiy.  No  call 
ever  reached  me  in  the  whole  of  that  space — whether  it  came  at  midday  or  mid- 
night— whether  it  was  to  scour  the  everglades  at  the  head  of  small  and  inade- 
quate commands,  or  to  explore  the  dark,  sinuous  streams,  whose  basky  shores 
were  the  safe  hiding  place  for  the  Seminole  armed  with  his  unerring  rifle,  to 
which  I  did  not  yield  willing  and  instant  obedience.  When  a  summons  to 
move  came  to  me,  I  staid  not  to  count  numbers  or  to  reckon  consequences.  I 
only  remembered  that  my  country  demanded  my  exertions,  and  that  my  duty 
was  prompt  obedience. 

Blessed  by  nature  with  far  more  than  ordinary  health  and  strength,  I  was 
enabled  to  perform  almost  Herculean  labors.  My  long  service  among  the 
Northwestern  Indians  had  given  me  a  knowledge  of  their  habits  and  of  wood- 
craft which  was  invaluable. 

As  a  necessary  consequence  of  such  a  course,  I  was  engaged  in  more  affairs 
with  the  enemy,  marched  over  a  greater  number  of  miles,  explored  more  un- 
known country,  was  instrumental  in  capturing  more  prisoners,  and  was  exposed 
to  more  personal  hardships  and  dangers  than  any  other  officer  engaged  in  the 
war. 

The  conflicts  at  Fort  Mellon,  Jupiter,  the  •'  Hunting  Grounds,"  tlie  various 
skirmishes  in  the  Everglades,  the  perilous  and  laborious  expeditions  I  made 
through  them,  the  dangerous  explorations  I  performed  of  unknown  streams 
and  lakes  to  gain  information  for  the  movements  of  the  army,  attest  the  tnith 
of  this  broad  and  apparently  self-eulogistic  assertion.  A  true  history  of  tiie 
Florida  War  would  sustain  the  declaration,  and  I  therefore  do  not  hesitate  to 
make  it. 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  47I 

Notwithstanding  the  service  which  I  performed  in  Florida,  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  officers  who  had  not  done  one-fourth  of  the  duty  I  had,  were  brevetted, 
some  even  received  two  brevets,  and  others,  who  had  not  even  heard  a  bullet 
during  the  war,  received  one  brevet. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  my  regiment  left  Florida  for  duty  on  the  Western 
frontier.  I  joined  a  portion  of  it  in  that  region  shortly  afterwards,  and  remained 
with  it  until  the  successful  termination  of  the  treaty  for  the  annexation  of 
Texas  required  our  arms  in  the  newly  gained  territory.  I  was  posted  for  sev- 
eral months  after  my  arrival  in  Texas,  at  San  Antonio,  in  charge  of  the  Indian 
frontier.  Anterior  to  the  declaration  of  war  with  Mexico,  but  when  hostilities 
with  that  republic  were  inevitable,  I  made  various  applications  to  General 
Taylor  to  be  permitted  to  join  him ;  these  applications  were,  however,  refused 
on  the  ground  that  my  services  were  necessary  in  the  position  I  then  occupied. 
I  come  now  to  speak  of  a  transaction  which  has  been  much  misunderstood 
by  my  military  seniors,  and  which  has  therefore  been  the  cause  of  serious  in- 
jury to  me.  I  refer  to  the  call  I  made  for  volunteers  in  the  summer  of  1846,  for 
the  deferrce  of  the  country  against  tlie  invasion  of  Mexican  troops,  believed  to 
be  assembled  in  Mexico  in  the  vicinity  of  Presidio  de  Rio  Grande.  This  place 
is  on  the  Rio  Grande,  nearly  due  west  from  San  Antonio,  and  is  the  point  at 
which  a  force  destined  against  the  latter,  Austin,  and  other  towns  in  the  same 
region  of  Texas,  would  most  probably  cross  the  river;  many  rumors  had 
reached  me,  all  bearing  concurrent  testimony  to  the  assemblage  of  a  military 
force  on  the  Rio  Grande,  for  the  invasion  of  the  district  of  country  with  whose 
defence  I  was  specially  charged.  I,  however,  did  not  repose  entire  confidence 
in  such  reports,  but,  to  be  assured  of  the  truth,  despatched  two  special  mes- 
sengers, said  to  be  the  most  reliable  men  in  the  country,  to  Presidio  de  Rio 
Grande.  These  spies  returned,  bringing  me  information  that  all  the  approaches 
to  the  river,  even  the  very  cow-paths,  were  guarded,  and  the  opposite  bank 
was  bristling  with  troops.  Being  thus  assured  of  the  correctness  of  the  rumors 
which  had  been  received,  it  was  plainly  my  duty  to  prepare  for  the  defence  of 
the  country.  I  had  under  my  immediate  command  three  skeleton  companies 
of  dragoons,  a  force  entirely  inadequate  to  meet  the  coming  danger.  No  alter- 
native was  left  me  but  a  resort  to  the  militia  of  the  State,  and  for  assistance 
from  this  force  I  appealed  and  received  it. 

I  marched  toward  the  Rio  Grande  with  my  entire  command,  first,  to  prevent 
the  enemy  from  crossing  the  river,  if  he  had  not  done  it,  or  secondly,  if  he  had, 
to  meet  him  in  the  wild  and  uninhabited  country  which  is  found  eighty  or  ninety 
miles  west  of  San  Antonio.  I  was  resolved  to  prevent,  if  possible,  any  Mexi- 
cap  forces  from  penetrating  into  the  cultivated  reigons  commencing  on  the 
beautiful  streams  some  twenty-five  miles  west  of  San  Antonio,  and  extending 
eastward  to  the  Sabine.  Had  he  been  permitted  to  reach  this  district  he  could 
have  drawn  supplies  from  our  very  soil.  My  heart  would  have  been  scorched 
with  shame  if  I  had  beheld  the  footsteps  of  invasion  blighting  so  fair  a  portion 
of  my  country,  with  whose  protection  I  was  specially  charged.  It  may.  seem 
absurd  now  to  speak  of  invasion  by  a  Mexican  army  or  to  fear  the  consequen- 
ces which  might  ensue  from  it.  They  were  then,  however,  an  almost  unknowA 
and  untried  foe,  and  in  proportion  as  unknown  and  untried,  were  respected. 


472  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEV. 

I  reported  all  these  things  to  General  Taylor,  the  senior  officer  in  the  field, 
explaining  fully  the  cause  of  my  movements  on  the  Rio  Grande.  As  I  did  not 
receive  any  acknowledgment  from  General  Taylor  of  the  reception  of  my  report, 
and  as  I  have  never  seen  it  among  the  published  documents  relating  to  the 
Mexican  War,  I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  officer  through  whom  I  was 
compelled  to  transmit  it,  suppressed  it.  He  is,  hence,  chargeable  with  all  the 
misapprehensions  and  wrong  which  I  have  suffered  from  not  having  my  motives 
and  conduct  in  that  whole  transaction  properly  understood. 

By  him  I  was  stricken  from  the  command,  arrested  and  disgraced  in  pres- 
ence of  the  troops,  and  this,  too,  for  having  been  too  zealous  in  the  perform- 
ance of  what  I  conceived  to  be  my  duty. 

I  was  not  long  detained  in  arrest,  being  released  in  a  few  days  thereafter. 
This,  however,  did  not  remove  the  sting  which  had  been  planted  in  my  bosom, 
by  the  attempt  to  insult  and  humiliate  me  in  the  presence  of  my  command. 

I  was  finally  permitted  to  enter  Mexico,  and  after  a  long  and  arduous  march, 
checkered  by  various  vicissitudes,  I  found  the  army  assembled  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  with  a  view  to  the  invasion  of  Mexico  through  Vera  Cruz. 

I  am  now  arrived  at  the  initial  point  of  events  of  so  recent  occurrence,  and 
involving  so  many  personal  feelings  and  unsettled  points,  that  I  would  fain  here 
close  this  communication. 

But  justice  to  myself  requires  that  I  should  continue  the  narrative  yet  a  little 
further ;  I  will,  however,  be  as  concise  as  possible,  and  treat  only  of  matters 
about  which,  I  fancy,  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion. 

During  the  investment  of  Vera  Cruz,  the  action  at  Madellin  was  fought  and 
won.  You  doubtlessly  remember,  General,  that  this  was  done  entirely  at  my 
solicitation,  and  that  I  planned  and  directed  the  entire  fight  from  beglitning  to 
end. 

Whatever  of  credit  is  due,  therefore,  for  this  achievement  Is  justly  mine. 

It  does  not  become  me  to  discuss  the  merits  or  enhance  the  importance  of  my 
actions,  and  I  leave  it  to  you  and  my  associates  to  vindicate  the  truth  of  an  as- 
sertion which  I  will  now  hazard.  I  assert  that  no  separate,  independent  action 
was  fought  during  the  whole  of  the  Mexican  War,  with  equal  importance  with 
that  of  Madellin,  for  which  the  senior  officer  present  has  not  received,  if  of  the 
regular  army,  a  brevet  commission.  In  support  of  this  assertion.  I  will  remark 
that  every  officer  under  me,  with  some  two  exceptions,  was  brevetted  for  their 
participation  in  the  action. 

I  do  not  think  it  is  just  to  make  an  exception  of  me. 

Next  in  order  followed  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo.  Here  modesty  compels 
me  to  be  silent. 

In  due  time  the  army  was  organized  in  Puebla  for  the  march  into  the  valley 
of  Mexico,  and  in  the  assignment  of  command  I  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
cavalry  brigade. 

It  is  true,  that  from  the  nature  of  the  operations  in  the  valley,  the  cavalry  was 
not  permitted  to  effect  any  brilliant  achievement. 

I  venture  to  say,  however,  without  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  no 
force  in  the  army  was  so  uniformly  attive,  so  generally  ready  for  all  descrip- 
t-'ons  of  duty,  or  so  entirely  useful  as  the  cavalry.     This  force  constituted  the 


^ 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  473 

great  prehensile  power  of  the  army,  by  which  all  its  supplies  were  obtained,  and 
without  which  all  movements  would  have  been  impossible. 

"With  these  remarks  on  the  services  of  the  troops  which  I  commanded  in  the 
operations  around  the  capitol  of  Mexico,  I  take  leave  of  the  httle  army,  whose 
bright  exploits  on  that  stage  will  live  forever  in  memory,  comfortably  quartered 
in  this  city. 

Since  tlie  close  of  the  war,  has  followed  the  dispensation  of  rewards  and 
favors  and  the  assignments  to  command. 

In  casting  about  me  to  see  what  I  have  received  and  how  I  stand  in  relation 
to  others  near  me  in  rank,  I  find  that  I  am  ranked  lineally  and  brevet  by 
those  who  have  not  seen  half  the  service  that  I  have ;  and  by  brevet  by  some 
who  are  my  lineal  juniors.  Furthermore,  these  juniors  have  received  com- 
mands corresponding  to  their  brevet  giades,  while  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
studied  intention  to  deprive  me  of  such  positions  and  advantages  as  Fortune  or 
the  accidents  of  the  service  have  thrown  in  my  path. 

Those  above  and  below  me  have  been  advanced,  while  I  seem  to  have 
occupied  an  unfortunate  middle  ground  on  which  no  genial  showers  of  favor 
have  fallen. 

Believe  me,  General,  I  do  not  mention  these  facts  to  reproach  you,  as  I  am 
sure  you  have  had  no  part  nor  lot  in  them.  I  am  confident^  you  desire  to  see 
full,  ample,  and  even-handed  justice  dispensed  to  every  officer  of  the  army, 
and  that  you  are  ever  ready  to  exert  your  influence  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  end. 

My  object  in  laying  this  paper  before  you,  is  to  request  your  assistance,  as 
the  head  of  the  army,  in  remedying  tlie  grievance  of  which  I  complain. 
I  am.  General,  most  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 
[signed.]     WILLIAM  S.  HARNEY, 

Colonel  Second  Dragoons,  &c. 
Major  General  Winfield  Scott, 

Commander-in-Chief  U.  S.  A.,   Washington  City,  D.  C. 

Note. — In  speaking  of  my  services  in  Florida,  I  have  attributed  great  im- 
portance to  the  many  difficult  reconnoissances  I  made.  The  great  value  of  a 
successful  exploration  in  Indian  warfare  can  only  be  properly  understood  by 
those  well-instructed  in  the  habits  of  the  savages.  It  is  often  more  difficult  to 
find  them,  than  to  beat  them  after  they  are  found.  Hence,  the  officer  who  can 
discover  the  hiding  places  of  a  savage  enemy,  and  can  happily  conduct  his  own 
troops  to  them,  is  often  more  useful  than  he  who  exercises  the  chief  command. 

I  will  add  in  regard  to  my  participation  in  the  operations  in  the  valley  of 
Mexico,  that,  although  I  was  prevented  by  the  nature  of  the  ground  or  from 
the  limited  extent  of  the  cavalry  force,  from  accomplishing  anything  brilliant, 
I  was  under  fire  in  every  battle  fought  in  the  valley  except  Chapultepec. 

So  broken  up  was  the  cavalry  brigade  by  detachments  being  drawn  from  it 
for  various  purposes,  that  I  absolutely  commenced  the  pursuit  of  the  Mexican 
army  at  Churubusco  with  a  corporal  and  six  men. 


474  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

In  vindication  of  the  military  services  of  General  Har- 
ney in  the  Florida  war,  the  following  letter  from  General 
Jesup  to  the  Hon.  Lewis  F.  Linn,  United  States  Senator 
from  Missouri,  is  one  of  the  many  and  well  deserving  fugi- 
tive testimonials  to  the  honor  and  valor  of  this  gallant 
soldier,  that  have  been  showered  upon  his  name  through 
his  long  life : 

Washington  City,  Augiist  29th,  1842. 

Sir:  In  reply  to  your  note  requesting  information  in  regard  to  the  merits  and 
services  of  Colonel  Harney  in  the  Florida  war,  I  have  the  honor  to  state  that 
the  Colonel  joined  the  army  under  my  command  in  January,  1837.  He  was  in 
the  battle  of  Fort  Mellon  in  February  of  that  year,  where  Colonel  Fanning  and 
himself,  with  less  than  three  hundred  men,  defeated  upwards  of  four  hundred 
Indian  warriors.  In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1837,  except  during  a  short 
leave  of  absence,  he  was  constantly  and  actively  engaged  in  the  most  useful 
ser\-ice.  During  that  summer  and  autumn,  though  my  force  was  small  and  the 
Indian  force  comparatively  large,  hardly  a  single  depredation  was  allowed  to 
be  committed  upoi)  the  inhabitants  of  the  countrj' — there  were  no  Indian  com- 
tields  cut  up  by  the  troops  that  season,  it  is  true,  for  so  active  and  energetic 
were  their  operations  that  not  a  stalk  of  com  was  allowed  to  grow  anywhere 
but  on  the  farms  of  citizens — if  we  could  not  catch  the  Indians  we  kept  them 
constantly  running  and  distant  from  the  frontier. 

In  the  campaign  of  1837-8,  Colonel  Harney  was  most  active  and  distin- 
guished. He  and  an  officer  of  my  staff.  Major  Searle,  in  separate  boats,  pro- 
pelled by  poles  and  oars,  explored  the  river  St.  John  to  the  highest  point  of 
boat  navigation,  through  a  hostile  country,  where  they  were  every  moment 
liable  to  attack.  The  success  of  the  campaign  was  believed  to  depend  upon 
the  performance  of  that  service,  and  hazardous  as  it  was,  it  was  to  be  per- 
formed. It  could  not  have  been  confided  to  better  hands,  nor  have  been  more 
ably  and  gallantly  executed.  The  battle  of  Locha  Hatchee,  fought  about  the 
last  of  January,  1838,  by  the  troops  under  my  immediate  command,  and  the 
Indians  under  their  chiefs,  Toskegee  and  Halleck  Hadjo,  was  the  last  battle  in 
Florida  where  the  enemy  appeared  in  large  force — all  the  affairs  since  have 
been  skirmishes  with  litde  parties  of  from  five  to  twenty-five,  or  perhaps  in  one 
instance  thirty  warriors.  That  battle  was  as  decisive  as  any  other  In  our  whole 
Indian  history — it  resulted  in  an  arrangement  with  the  Indians  by  which  up- 
wards of  twelve  hundred,  including  negroes,  surrendered,  of  whom  near  four 
hundred  were  warriors — equal  to  all  that  has  been  accomplished  from  that  time 
to  this  moment.  In  that  batde,  as  well  as  in  the  events  which  followed.  Colonel 
Harney  bore  a  most  prominent  and  distinguished  part.  At  the  head  of  a  por- 
tion of  his  battalion  he  was  the  first  to  cross  the  river  under  the  fire  of  the 
enemy,  and  had  he  been  immediately  supported,  results  which  it  required 
8-vcral  weeks  to  accomplish  would  doubtless  have  been  immediate;  but  at  the 
moment  when  about  to  enter  and  cross  the  river  myself,  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  Tennessee  volunteers,  I  received  a  shot  under  the  left  eye,  which  produced 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  LNCIDENTS.  475 

for  the  moment  almost  total  blindness,  and  thre%v  me  out  of  action  for  more 
than  half  an  hour.  The  consequence  was,  the  enemy,  though  completely 
beaten,  was  not  pursued.  Colonel  Harney  was  soon  after  sent  into  the  ever- 
glades in  pursuit  of  Sam  Jones  and  Chekeka  and  their  party.  He  came  up  with 
them,  fought  and  beat  them,  and  I  am  confident  would,  in  less  than  a  month, 
have  captured  or  destroyed  them ;  but  I  received  orders  to  send  his  corps  out  of 
Florida,  and  was  obliged  to  recall  him.  I  was  about  that  time  recalled  myself. 
The  subsequent  services  of  Colonel  Harney  are  known  to  the  country.  The 
destruction  of  Chekeka's  band  in  the  everglades  was  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant blows  that  has  been  struck  since  I  left  Florida.  That  was  effected  by  the 
persevering  energy  of  Colonel  Harney  alone.  View  his  whole  services,  from 
their  commencement  to  their  termination,  and  they  will  compare  advan- 
tageously with  those  of  any  other  officer  who  has  served  in  Florida  at  any  time ; 
and  if  justice  be  done  he  will  receive  as  high  reward  as  ^ny  other.  I  may 
have  been  thought  remiss  in  not  having  placed  more  prominently  before  the 
country  the  gallant  and  meritorious  services  of  the  officers  who  were  associated 
with  me.  It  was  my  intention  to  do  justice  to  all ;  and  on  my  return  I  pre- 
sented a  condensed  report  of  my  operations,  intending  to  follow  it  by  a  report 
in  minute  detail.  But  I  soon  discovered  that  I  had  been  denounced  and  my 
acts  misrepresented  in  my  absence,  not  only  by  a  profligate  press,  but  by  dem- 
agogues still  more  profligate,  who,  skulking  behind  the  ramparts  of  privilege, 
had  fulminated  slanders  and  misrepresentations  against  me  which  they  would 
not  have  dared  even  to  whisper  had  they  not  been  shielded  by  the  broad  cur- 
tain of  the  Constitution.  False  issues  had  been  made,  and  the  public  deceived 
in  regard  to  my  measures.  The  country  was  in  the  highest  state  of  political 
excitement  in  consequence  of  the  canvass  then  going  on  for  the  Presidency. 
My  condensed  report  was  not  published  in  more  than  half  a  dozen  papers,  and 
was  read  only  by  my  personal  friends,  though  the  army  under  my  command 
had  killed  and  captured  more  Indians  than  the  armies  of  Wayne  and  Harrison 
in  all  their  Indian  campaigns.  I  was  convinced  the  time  had  not  come  when 
ti-uth  would  be  listened  to — and  knowing  that  I  had  performed  my  duty  not 
only  faithfully  but  efficiently,  and  relying  with  perfect  confidence  on  the  ulti- 
mate justice  of  my  countrymen,  I  determined  to  wait  a  more  propitious  time. 
The  proper  time  I  believe  has  nearly  arrived — the  war  is  said  to  be  closed — 
honors  are  showered  upon  some  of  the  actors,  whilst  most  of  those  who  served 
with  vie  have  been  overlooked.  With  more  difficulties  to  surmount  than  all  the 
other  commanders  together,  it  was  my  fortune  to  kill  and  capture  during  the 
few  months  of  my  command  about  double  as  many  Indians  and  negroes  as  all 
who  preceded  me  and  all  who  have  succeeded  me  up  to  this  hour.  Yet  so  far 
as  I  am  concerned  personally,  I  hold  in  absolute  contempt  all  honor  derived  from 
Indian  warfare ;  but  the  gallant  men  who  served  with  me  are  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  truth,  and  it  shall  be  my  business,  so  soon  as  my  official 
engagements  will  permit,  to  place  it  before  the  Government  and  the  country. 

I  have  the  honor,  &c.,  &c.,  most  respectfully,  &c.,  &c., 

[Signed]  THOS.  S.  JESUP, 

Major-General  United  States  Army. 

The  Hon.  L.  F.  Linn, 

Senate  of  the  United  States,  Washington  City. 


4j6  I-I'"E  OF  GENERAL  HARNEY. 

In  concluding,  I  am  led  to  say  that  I  am  a  believer  in 
great  men — a  hero  worshiper  if  you  will ;  still  I  reverence 
those  who  have  made  a  fame  among  the  world's  people 
through  the  exercise  of  great  qualities;  those  who,  like 
towering  columns,  lift  themselves  above  the  level  upon 
which  the  mass  of  men  stand.  Whether  this  distinction  be 
won  upon  the  battle-field  or  in  the  civic  strife  of  legislative 
halls ;  whether  by  the  man  of  action  or  the  man  of  reflec- 
tion ;  in  the  exhibition  of  the  strong  arm  of  power  or  in 
statesmanlike  laws  for  the  directing  and  governing  of  the 
people — I  hold  it  to  be  admirable  and  worthy  of  emulation. 

Patriotism,  heroism  and  humanity  constitute  the  trinity 
of  attributes  that  make  public  life  a  fraternity.  Without 
the  influence  of  these  attributes  the  pious  would  doubt  the 
favor  of  God  and  the  spirit  of  Cain  pervade  the  world.  Of 
the  many  illustrious  men  whom  I  have  met  and  admired, 
there  have  been  but  few  that  I  have  fully  trusted  and 
loved ;  but  few  for  whom  I  have  felt  the  attractiveness  of 
intimacy  and  friendship.  These  I  name :  Richard  Yates, 
Horace  Greeley,  Charles  Sumner  and  General  William 
Selby  Harney,  all  names  familiar  to  American  history.  I 
knew  Richard  Yates  for  a  longer  period  than  any  of  the 
others,  and  God  in  his  bounty  never  more  richly  endowed 
any  man  with  the  chief  of  the  elements  of  character  that 
distinguish  men  in  social  and  public  life.  Greeley  and 
Sumner  were  my  friends,  I  admired  them  for  purity  of 
life,  for  correctness  of  thought  and  teaching,  and  for  their 
masterful  genius  and  ability.  My  acquaintance  with  Gen- 
eral Harney  is  of  more  recent  date,  of  but  few  years'  stand- 
ing. In  him  I  have  found  a  friend,  and  have  never  met  a 
man  of  more  distinguished  bearing,  of  more  dignified  and 
courteous  address,  or  a  soldier  whose  record  is  so  full  of 
all  that  is  interesting  and  all  that  is  noble  and  unselfish. 
General  Harney  sprang  from  a  line  to  which  belongs  heroic 
blood.  He  has  defended  his  country  and  my  country  as 
most  other  men  could  not.     He  has  periled  his  life  to  pro- 


RECOLLECTIONS  AND  INCIDENTS.  477 

mote  the  civilization  and  progress  of  the  people.  He  has 
that  generous  and  sympathizing  heart,  that  clear  judgment, 
and  that  promptitude  of  action  that  would  distinguish  him 
in  any  station  in  life.  He  is  a  born  leader,  one  of  nature's 
captains,  whose  tall  plume  was  always  to  be  seen  in  front 
of  the  battle,  and  with  all  those  elements  of  manhood 
which,  in  earlier  days,  produced  the  patriarch,  who  com- 
bined the  functions  of  the  warrior,  the  legislator  and  the 
ruler. 

General  Harney  has  met  the  foes  of  his  country,  civ- 
lized  and  uncivilized,  and  none  have  stood  before  his 
onset.  He  has  made  laws  for  savage  tribes,  and  gov- 
erned them  with  justice  and  moderation ;  he  has  entered 
the  province  of  diplomacy  when  diplomates  were  wanting,^ 
and  has  reached  a  ready  solution  of  vexing  questions ;  he 
has  often  judicially  interpreted  the  instructions  and  laws 
under  which  he  was  acting,  and  always  with  advantage  to 
the  soldiers  and  civilians  who  came  within  the  scope  of  his- 
action.  Many  nice  questions  frequently  came  before  him 
for  adjustment,  and  it  was  only  by  clear  insight  into  the 
motives  of  men  and  by  practical  and  not  theoretical  prin- 
ciples that  he  reached  substantial  justice.  Through  in- 
trigue and  jealousy  his  own  purity  of  motives  and  generous 
spirit  found  a  safe  pathway  for  his  own  line  of  duty,  and  he 
steadily  pursued  it.  In  the  military  annals  of  the  country 
he  has  a  name  which  no  detraction  can  reach.  He  has 
achieved  a  reputation  which  no  amount  of  envy  or  malice 
can  possibly  tarnish.  He  may  well  be  content.  His 
record  is  secure ;  his  motives  cannot  be  questioned.  A 
kindly,  impetuous  and  intrepid  spirit,  America  has  shel- 
tered no  nobler  nor  more  unselfish  heart,  no  character  more 
worthy  of  her  lasting  honor. 

THE    END. 


j 


UNIVERSfTY  OF  ILLINOS-OnBANA 


3  0112  084207007 


